Patna, (Bihar Times): The government has decided to recruit retired army personnel in a bid to save the declining population of tigers in the state’s only Tiger Reserve in Valmikinagar near Nepal border in West Champaran district. There are in all 27 Tiger Reserves in India covering an area of 37,761 square kilometres.

According to Bihar’s Chief Conservator of Forest-cum-Wildlfie Warden, Murariji Mishra, this dedicated protection force will stop poaching at Valmiki National Park. A proposal in this regard, which was put forwarded by the state government to the centre, has been approved. The protection force, in the first phase, will comprise 50 retired army personnel. It will be expanded later.

Valmiki National Park is regarded as one of the best-maintained Tiger Reserves in the country. But recently it has become a haven for poachers.

In the last three years at least 23 big cats have disappeared from there. The number of tigers has declined to 33 in 2005 from 56 in 2002, the 2006 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report said. Neither the officials of Valmiki National Park nor the state government has any information about the missing tigers. The CAG report said the estimation of tigers in the park was irregular as the census was conducted only thrice between 2000 and 2005.

According to report in 2002 there were 35 male, 17 female tigers besides, four cubs, but by 2005, the number of males was 10, females 22 and there was only one cub. In 1990, there were 80 tigers and 31 leopards in the park. But their population dwindled due to poaching.

According to official figure in 1973 the tiger population in the country had dwindled to 1,827 from an estimated 55,000 in 1900. Project Tiger, launched in the same year, gained initial success. The tiger population rose to 4,002 in 1985 and 4,334 in 1989. But in 1993 the population of the tiger once again dropped to 3,600.

Comment