West Bengal: In a rare moment for North Bengal`s Buxa, where no big cat has been spotted since its creation in 1983, a Royal Bengal tiger has been spotted in the reserve and captured on film.
A beat officer, Manindra Sarkar, while looking for scats
on March 24 had a chance encounter with the beast and
photographed it and its kill in the Chuniajhora beat of the
Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR).
Wildlife officials are excited over the sighting. It was
believed that around a dozen tigers were in the reserve, but
though forest officials had heard their roar, none had been
sighted earlier.
"This is the first time that a tiger has been
photographed in Buxa. It proves that tigers do exist in the
sanctuary," state Chief Wildlife Warden S B Mondol said.
"Sarkar was looking for scats for DNA profiling as part
of the ongoing tiger census in the Hatipota range of the
reserve when he sighted the tiger dragging a deer away. The
beat officer managed to take a few snaps of the tiger from
behind a bush," he said.
"This is extremely encouraging and it proves that tigers
do exist in the Buxa reserve even though it was said that no
big cats existed there," Mondol said.
The 761-sq-km reserve in Jalpaiguri district bordering
Bhutan has a variety of wildlife including leopard, deer,
sambar, Indian bison, sloth bear and wild dog.
Field Director of the reserve R P Saini said the tiger
which was sighted was a sub-adult.
He said the state government had submitted a proposal for
captive breeding of tigers in Buxa and is awaiting clearance
from the Union Environment and Forest ministry.
Tigers had to be brought for this from sanctuaries like
Manas in Assam or Dudhwa in UP which are similar to Buxa, he
said.
There are also plans for camera trapping to count the
tigers in the reserve after scat and pug mark analysis, Mondol
said.
PTI
