Royal Bengal tiger spotted in Tripura

While Sariska and other reserves are worried about their falling numbers of tigers, there’s good news from another part of the country....

While Sariska and other reserves are worried about their falling numbers of tigers, there’s good news from another part of the country. The Royal Bengal tiger has been spotted in Tripura, which has had no record of the presence of the big cat in the past three decades.

A team from Dehra Dun-based Wildlife Institute of India, led by Sabyasachi Dasgupta, spotted a Royal Bengal tigress with two babies in the Trishna reserve forest while they had gone there to study the status of bisons recently, said conservator of forests, Asish K. Roy.

He said Dasgupta had himself come across the striped carnivore three times. Tracking of the pug marks confirmed that the Bengal tiger was indeed present there, the Wildlife Institute’s annual report said.

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Tripura has not had a tiger since 1976 though cheetas and leopards are present in the state. The Centre is now considering including Tripura in Project Tiger for the protection of and research on the big cat. Sources in state forest department said the 194 sq km Trishna Sanctuary can be a good habitat for the Bengal tiger.

Other than its original habitat in the Sundarbans in West Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh, tigers are also found in Nepal and Bhutan.

But with Tripura having no borders with Bhutan or Nepal, the question arises as to how the Royal Bengal tiger came into the state.

It may just be that the tiger entered Tripura from Bangladesh through an elephant corridor, said the Director of Sundarbans Bio-Sphere Reserve, Atanu Raha.

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Forest officials in Tripura said there exists an elephant corridor connecting Trishna Reserve Forest and Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh, through which many elephants from Tripura migrated to Bangladesh about three decades back when the Damboor Hydel Project was constructed.

PM to visit Sariska sanctuary on May 23

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Sariska Tiger Sanctuary on May 23 to hold discussions with officials over reports of disappearance of tigers. ‘‘During his two-day stay, he will meet senior officials,’’ the PM’s media adviser Sanjay Baru said on Sunday. Singh had in March constituted a five-member task force headed by Sunita Narain, Director of Centre for Science and Environment, to look into reports of a fast-dwindling tiger population. —PTI