Contrary to the claims of the Wildlife authorities and conservationists that there were only a few or no tigers in Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), West Bengal, scat analysis of the carnivores for the past few years has established the presence of 12-14 tigers in the reserve.
Based on the scat samples sent each year by the Forest Department of West Bengal from 2010, scientists from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology have concluded that there were 12-14 tigers. However, the sex ratio was found to be highly skewed as only one-fourth of samples was found to be of tigresses.
The WB forest officials approached CCMB after the National Tiger Conservation Authority found the tiger density to be quite low in BTR.
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Pointing out that there was no repeat of the DNA samples each year, Dr. Anuradha Reddy, CCMB scientist, who extensively studied population genetics of tigers, told The Hindu that the possibility of the samples belonging to captive animals was also ruled out. She said the sex ratio was skewed because it was not a stable breeding population and the males were probably moving between forests using the Buxa-Assam corridor. “It is a huge forest area extending into Bhutan,” she added.