Bengal tigers are going to be released in safari park

HT, 2 Oct 2016, Kolkata: Courtesy the Bengal government, Royal Bengal Tigers will roam at a North Bengal safari park in December. The park will be coming up on Sevok Road near Siliguri.

“We are going to release six tigers in Bengal Safari Park. The animals will roam in 50 acres of land. Around 200 metres are yet to be fenced. The tourists will visit the park in a bus. Rides will start from December,” said state forest minister Binay Krishna Barman.

There are safari parks in Madhya Pradesh and some other states but this a first for Bengal.

Earlier, the forest department has claimed the presence of tigers at the Buxa Tiger reserve. The area of the forest is 750 square km and the government has installed 50 close circuit cameras to track the movement of tigers. But till date, not a single movement of a tiger was recorded. Questions were raised if there are tigers at the Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri.

An official in the North Bengal forest department, said, requesting anonymity that even during the patrolling nobody has come across a tiger. However, Burman pointed out that tigers do not come before cameras to prove their existence.

“We are sure of their existence inside the Buxa Tiger Reserve forest. It is difficult to film these elusive animals,” said the forest minister. Early this year, chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the Bengal Safari Park. The park stretches for 1,000 acres and presently there are deer, one rhino, boars, jungle fowls and leopards. The government is also going to set up a bear safari park.

“The area has been divided into two parts, one for herbivores and another for carnivorous animals. The work is progressing following instructions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee,” said Barman.