Scat tests point to rise Buxa Tiger number

The number of tiger in Buxa has gone up from 15 in 2010 to at least 19 last year, according to scat   analyses carried out by a central government laboratory in Hyderabad and an Assam based NGO.

While the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad put the number of big cats in Buxa Tiger Reserve in 2011 at 20, the figure given by NGO was 19.

The forest officers had collected scat samples from Buxa  between January and March 2011 in the presence of NGO official and wildlife activists.  More then 400 samples had been collected, but 234 were sent for the tests.

The field director of the tiger reserve, said the foresters had received the test results from the Hyderabad center and the NGO last week. “ The CCMB reports say Buxa has 20 tigers – sixteen males and four females. The NGO has put the number of Male tigers at fifteen and females at four”.

The forest officer said at least 30 tigers could sustain in Buxa. He said tigers might be lurking in the adjacent Bhutan forests also.

“Buxa shares a 65 km border with Bhutan forests. There might be tigers in Bhutan also, but a final word can be said only after a scat analysis is conducted there. A beat officer had clicked the picture of a tiger in 2010 in the Hatipota range that abuts on the Bhutan Forests.

He said the CCMB report also said excrement of a particular tiger had been collected from the same spot in two consecutive years. The CCMB and the NGO had analysed  scat samples in 2010 also.

Although repeated scat analyses  proved the presence of tigers in Buxa, environmentalists were never ready to believe the foresters’ claims. Wildlife activists said other than scat samples, scratch marks and sighting by the foresters, the Buxa authorities had no proof to show the existence of tigers in the reserve.

By  “proof” the environmentalists were referring to the photographs of tigers. Although a beat officer  had taken a tiger’s photograph in 2010, the picture was hazy.

Courtesy : The Telegraph