Buxa Tiger Reserve: 13 and more lurking?

Alipurduar, July 30: The Buxa Tiger Reserve has at least 13 tigers according to DNA tests conducted on scat collected by the forest department and sent to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

A rhino in Jaldapara during the census on Sunday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury
Alipurduar, Feb. 24: The forest department will conduct a feasibility study to see if rhinos can be introduced in the Buxa Tiger Reserve to try and expand their gene pool in neighbouring Jaldapara, where it has apparently suffered because of years of breeding among a small group of animals.

Conservation policies to protect wildlife and biodiversity ignore the basic survival needs and imperatives of local people. This article aims to show how conservation policies trigger floods in protected areas, especially those located in the foothills of the Himalayan mountain ranges, leading to huge damage to plantations and habitats as well as settlements of the local people.

Forest officials have started the tiger census with renewed vigour in Neora Valley Sanctuary, spanning over 113 sq km area in north Bengal.

The census, which began from November 20, will end on Novemeber 25. A total of 33 teams, comprising both government and NGO representatives, are conducting the survey.

More than three dozen elephants have been killed after being hit by trains between Siliguri and Alipurduar railway stations in the North East Frontier Railway in the past eight years and yet neither the state government nor the railway board seems to have an answer to stop the rising cases of jumbo deaths on train tracks.

The flora and fauna of north Bengal have been suffering because of unscientific mining in Bhutan. Buxa Tiger Reserve, Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary and the Jalpaiguri forest division, located along the border, are the worst sufferers.

AFTER the shocking revelation in 2005 that the tigers (Panthera tigris) had vanished from the Sariska reserve in Rajasthan, Ranthambhore, also in the same State, and one of the most popular tiger habitats in the country, is approaching a similar crisis: The National Park may have only 15 big cats left.

Pages