Hundreds fan out in Indian reserve to count tigers
Date: 07-Dec-01
Country: INDIA
Author: Kamil Zaheer
As part of the week-long operation, officials from West Bengal state will team up with dozens of volunteers to scour the swampy landscape, crisscrossed by a maze of creeks and tiny tributaries of the Ganges, in search of tiger foot prints.
Teams are equipped with fibreglass vests and helmets while some officials are armed with rifles and firecrackers as a precautionary measure, P. Vyas, conservator and field director of the over 2,585 square kilometre Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, told Reuters.
"The tiger census is tough in Sunderbans because the area is divided into islands by rivers and there are tidal currents because it is close to the Bay of Bengal," Vyas said.
"We are providing strong nylon nets to protect teams who will make moulds of pug marks with plaster of paris," Vyas said in Saznekhali, the reserve's administrative office, some 100 km (62 miles) south of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal.
Officials said they would fan out across the salty creeks and dozens of islands in 72 boats to look for the foot prints that are normally visible during low tide periods.
Vyas said each team of about eight to 10 people would be connected to the others by wireless sets.
According to the last census in 1999, there were 284 Royal Bengal tigers, some of them maneaters, in the protected mangrove forests of the Sunderbans reserve.
There are also salt water crocodiles in the tributaries of the river Ganges, which flow into the Bay of Bengal.
Officials are taking no chances because one forest official was killed by a maneating tiger during the 1995 tiger census. In 2000, 18 people, mainly fishmermen, were killed by tigers.
India has the largest tiger population in the world. However, the country's tiger population has fallen to 3,500 from about 4,300 just 11 years ago.
Conservationists estimate the country is losing about 200 to 300 tigers a year due to poaching and development projects.
Vyas said two tigers were killed in the Sunderbans this year, most likely by villagers in nearby areas.
