Tigers At Sundarbans In Bengal Find Lockdown Grrreat

Tigers At Sundarbans In Bengal Find Lockdown Grrreat
Kolkata:

With humans in West Bengal under coronavirus lockdown, tigers in the Sundarbans mangrove forest are coming out to play, with park rangers on Thursday reporting a jump in sightings of the big cats.

The Sundarbans, straddling West Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh, is the world's biggest mangrove forest and home to the majestic and endangered Royal Bengal tiger.

"Sighting of tigers has gone up... after the lockdown," said Sudhir Das, director of the Sundarbans tiger reserve, referring to the nationwide restrictions in place since late March.

In normal times, forest officials catch a glimpse of the big cats no more than twice a week, Mr Das said.

But with the lockdown ending tourist traffic and grounding the noisy motorboats and launches that usually ply the region's waterways, they are now sighting tigers "up to six times" a week, he added.

The number of the big cats at the UNESCO World Heritage site has also gone up to 96 in the Indian part of the territory, up from 88 in 2018, according to the West Bengal state forest department which unveiled the latest headcount on Wednesday night.

Officials counted as many as 43 female tigers and 11 cubs using over 700 pairs of all-weather night-vision camera traps.

The Sundarbans is spread over 10,000 square kilometres (around 4,000 square miles) and derives its name from Sundari trees found abundantly in the region.

India is home to around 70 percent of the world's tigers. Last year, the government said the tiger population had risen from 2,226 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2018.

The government credited the increase in numbers to a strict ban on hunting and awareness drives in villages.

Despite the uptick, the increasing number of human-tiger conflicts due to shrinking habitats remains an area of concern for conservationists.

World

Coronavirus has spread to 187 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 38,47,211 and 2,69,594 have died; 22,91,902 are active cases and 12,85,715 have recovered as on May 8, 2020 at 1:38 pm.

India

In India, there are 56,342 confirmed cases including 1,886 deaths. The number of active cases is 37,916 and 16,540 have recovered as on May 8, 2020 at 8:00 am.

State & District Details

State Cases Active Recovered Deaths Maharashtra

17974

13979

3301

694

Gujarat

7012

4878

1709

425

Delhi

5980

3983

1931

66

Tamil Nadu

5409

3825

1547

37

Rajasthan

3427

1734

1596

97

Madhya Pradesh

3252

1828

1231

193

Uttar Pradesh

3071

1759

1250

62

Andhra Pradesh

1847

1029

780

38

Punjab

1644

1467

149

28

West Bengal

1548

1033

364

151

Telangana

1123

444

650

29

Jammu And Kashmir

793

449

335

9

Karnataka

705

309

366

30

Haryana

625

358

260

7

Bihar

550

299

246

5

Kerala

503

25

474

4

Odisha

219

155

62

2

Chandigarh

135

113

21

1

Jharkhand

132

88

41

3

Tripura

65

63

2

0

Uttarakhand

61

21

39

1

Chhattisgarh

59

21

38

0

Assam

54

19

34

1

Himachal Pradesh

46

6

38

2

Ladakh

42

25

17

0

Andaman And Nicobar Islands

33

0

33

0

Meghalaya

12

1

10

1

Puducherry

9

3

6

0

Goa

7

0

7

0

Manipur

2

0

2

0

Mizoram

1

1

0

0

Arunachal Pradesh

1

0

1

0

Dadar Nagar Haveli

1

1

0

0

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