Alipurduar, Nov. 25 -- As directed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), an intensive nationwide tiger census will begin in the last week of January 2026. In North Bengal, the Forest department will conduct the operation with special focus on Neora Valley National Park and the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), where camera trapping will form the backbone of the census.
These two forests have recorded repeated evidence of tiger presence in recent years, prompting the department to prioritise them in the upcoming survey. Neora Valley National Park, spread across 160 sq km, will be divided into one-sq-km grids, with two high-tech camera traps installed in each grid. Buxa Tiger Reserve, covering 760 sq km, will be mapped into two-sq-km grids, each fitted with a pair of camera traps to ensure comprehensive coverage.
The cameras will run continuously for 45 days. All photographic data collected from Neora Valley and BTR-considered the most crucial landscapes in this census-will be analysed and submitted to the NTCA for final population estimation. Senior forest officials have already undergone NTCA training and are now preparing frontline teams for the large-scale deployment of camera traps, particularly in these two tiger habitats.
"Neora Valley and Buxa Tiger Reserve will receive special attention in this census because we already have multiple pieces of confirmed evidence of tiger presence there," said Bhaskar JV, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), North Bengal.
Neora Valley recorded its first Royal Bengal Tiger sighting in 40 years in 2017, followed by another in December 2023. In Buxa, tigers were photographed in December 2021 after nearly three decades, with the latest confirmed sighting on December 31, 2023.
To improve habitat conditions in BTR, the Forest department has relocated Bhutia Basti and Gangutia from the reserve's core. "Whether tigers establish territories there will be seen in time," said BTR Field Director Apurba Sen.
The census will also cover the Kurseong Forest Division, Singalila National Park, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Gorumara and Jaldapara National Parks, and the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.