Bengal Forest Dept radio collars tiger in Sunderban Tiger Reserve

The West Bengal Forest department has put a radio collar on a male tiger in Sunderban Tiger Reserve, a top forest official said. Yadav said the Forest department is planning to put satellite radio collars on three more tigers in Sunderbans.The move comes after several human casualties in Sunderbans in the last few months.

The West Bengal Forest Department has put a radio collar on a male tiger in Sunderban Tiger Reserve, a top forest official said. Part of the 'Safeguard Tiger' campaign, the initiative will help in understanding the habitat utilization pattern of the big cats along with their behavior, Chief Wildlife Warden V K Yadav told reporters on Sunday.

''The male tiger was radio-collared during December 26 -27 and released in Sunderban Tiger Reserve for assessing tiger-human interactions through radio-telemetry,'' he said. The operation was conducted at Harikhali beat under Bashirat range under Sunderban Tiger Reserve.

''We will be monitoring it through satellite data and WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is also involved in monitoring,'' Yadav said. Yadav said the Forest department is planning to put satellite radio collars on three more tigers in Sunderbans.

The move comes after several human casualties in Sunderbans in the last few months. However, the forest official said the tigers in Sunderbans are not man-eaters and most of the human deaths were ''because of heavy blood loss as it takes 3 to 4 hours to bring the tiger attack victims to land for treatment.''