The Annual Tiger Census in Sunderbans will begin on and from November 27, 2023, as announced by
officials. The requisite training for 50 selected staff members has already been completed. This is at the
Sajnekhali Range Office in the region.
Other than the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve area the census will also be conducted in the adjacent
mangrove forest lands in the first phase, said the officials. In the second phase, the census will be
conducted in other areas of the Sunderbans that are under the jurisdiction of the state forest
department.
As many as 1,464 camera traps will be installed at 732 locations for conducting the census and
accumulating data. “In the first phase, the process of installing camera traps will be completed on
November 27, 2023, where they will remain at these locations for the following 35 days,” said the state
forest department official briefing the media. The second phase of the census is scheduled to start from
February 14, 2024.
In the previous census that was conducted, 101 Royal Bengal Tigers were spotted in the Sunderbans
area. The last tiger census was also conducted in two phases first from December 5, 2021 to January
5,2022 and then from January 8 to February 10, 2022. The number of tigers in the Sunderban areas
previously recorded was 88 in 2018 and 76 in 2014.
There is considerable discussion among wildlife enthusiasts and specialists about the fact that the
population density of the Royal Bengal Tigers in the Sunderbans area has almost reached its estimated carrying
capacity of 4.68 tigers per 100 square km. This was reported in a recent finding of the National Tiger
Conservation Authority (NCTA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Bengali