Foresters at the Buxa Tiger Reserve forest in Alipurduar district, which has lost its old fame of having a good population of the big cats, have once again claimed that they have proof of the presence of the Royal Bengal Tiger in the forests.

According to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of the Wildlife Division of the state forest department, Rabikant Sinha, trap cameras installed in the forests in 2019 have captured two photos of the Royal Bengal Tiger.

The official, however, said that they have not released the photos in public, keeping in mind the security of the big cats. “Two photos of the Royal Bengal Tiger were clicked by trap cameras six months ago. We don’t know whether the two photos are of the same animal. It is also very hard to know from the photos the gender of the animal,” Mr Sinha said.

However, this fresh claim from a top forest official, at a time when the country’s Tiger census has shown no presence of the tigers in the BTR, has led to a debate of sorts .

“Nobody among the thousands of forest villagers who live inside the forests has heard the roar of a tiger for the last 20 years. Not a single animal or a cow has been hunted by the tiger in the forest recently. We do not know how a top forest official can make such claims,” said the founder member of the Alipurduar Nature Club, Amal Dutta.

Buxa Tiger Reserve spreads across an area of 760 sq-km and was created as a tiger reserve forest in 1983 as the 15th such forest in India. There was a time when the BTR had at least 26 tigers in the seventies. However, while there have been claims of sighting of the majestic animals and them being captured by trap cameras, no one has been able to say for sure if the animals still exist in the BTR.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority had on 29 July, 2019 published a report of the fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation2018, and it showed that there is no existence of the animal in the BTR.

To bring back the old fame, the state forest department has started the tiger augmentation programme in the forest here after the National Tiger Conservation Authority primarily gave a nod for the same.

Six tigers from the Kaziranga National Park are supposed to be brought in the BTR soon.