In a major success for tiger conservation, a photograph of a tiger was captured in a camera trap in West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve on Saturday. The last time there has been an undisputed claim of the presence of a tiger in the reserve located in north Bengal was in 1998.
“ A male tiger was captured in a camera trap today in the Buxa Tiger Reserve,” V.K. Yadav, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden West Bengal, told The Hindu . The photograph was captured at 12.02 a.m. on Saturday.
The development assumes significance as there were plans by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to reintroducing tigers in the Reserve from a similar landscape of Kaziranga in Assam. A similar relocation from Madhya Pradesh to Satkosia in Odisha, a few years ago, did not give the desired outcomes.
Mr. Yadav said this is a natural movement of the tiger due to the augmentation of prey population. He said 300 deer were released in the wild in the last two years.
The development has brought cheer to wildlife experts and nature enthusiasts as questions were raised on the presence of big cats in the reserve. There are about 98 tigers in the Sundarbans in south Bengal which is the only mangrove forest in the world that is home to tigers.
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