Buxa Tiger Reserve: Big task ahead

Alipurduar, July 23: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has identified Buxa Tiger Reserve as one of the 11 habitats of the big cat to set up a quasi captive breeding programme for the rapidly vanishing animal.

According to R. P. Saini, the field director of Buxa Tiger Reserve, the NTCA, along with the Wildlife Institute of India, is looking for a 200-hectare tract of land inside the reserve for the purpose. “An enclosure will be erected around the area that will house one male and two female tigers. There will be one more fenced area where preys will be kept and the tiger enclosure will be linked to it. Such an arrangement is to ensure that big cats do not lose their instincts to hunt,” said Saini.

The field director said the process to identify the land was in progress and a suitable area would be earmarked soon. “The only problem is that tigers are rarely sighted in Buxa and it will be very difficult for us to dart them and keep them in the enclosure. We have sent a proposal to the NTCA to get the tigers from some other reserve. The project is expected to take off in one year,” said Saini.

The project, however, is being seen as a shot in the dark by the Central government by animal conservationists. Animesh Bose, the programme co-ordinator of Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation, said: “We welcome the initiative of NTCA to increase the number of tigers in the country. But setting it up successfully in Buxa is a tough proposition. Firstly, the terrain is hilly and attempts to dart tigers will not only prove to be difficult but would also scare the shy tigers away. Secondly, the animals brought in from other reserves would have problems adjusting to the hilly habitat.”

He said the NTCA had already started such a project in Sariska, Rajastan, and it was better to wait for the results there before taking up the breeding elsewhere. “Sariska has lost all the tigers it had and there are chances of success. In Buxa, there are tigers, though rarely seen. There is enough evidence like scat and pug marks to prove that they do exist,” he said.

Bose said some years back, the forest department had brought two male rhinos from Kaziranga to Gorumara and Jaldapara in a bid to improve the gene pool and increase the population of the herbivore in these two reserves. Both the rhinos, Madhu and Ratul, did not survive.

According to a senior forester of north Bengal, having such an enclosure meant that a lot of precautions had to be taken to ensure that the penned tigers did not escape. He said the fence erected around the enclosure had to be good enough to withstand the rampaging elephants.