TIGER! TIGER!

The first tiger that poses for picture at Buxa Tiger Reserve

The Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) came up in 1983 and for the first time since then the officials spotted a tiger directly. A beat officer Manindra Sarkar was able to a take two photographs of the tiger from close range. The deputy field director of the BTR, Subhankar Sengupta claimed it as an achievement because till now they would have to be satisfied with scats, pugmarks and sound of roaring.

Sengupta said they identified presence of 12 to 15 tigers in the reserve area during census done in 2007. Tiger census in all-India basis for 2010 is going on from February and it will be continued till the end of April. 83 samples like scat have been sent for DNA examination to Hyderebad and Guwahati. He hoped that this time the number of big cats might rise in this reserve.

It was learnt that a beat officer Manindra Sarkar spotted the tiger in Chunijhora beat of Hatipota range on 24 March when he was on his duty for the ongoing tiger census. "Sarkar saw the 5 to 6 year old tiger in a bush when it was walking away. He was able to take two snaps with his ordinary camera and it was the first direct evidence that the tigers exist in our reserve", said the DFD-BTR, Sengupta.