DNA sampling to be used as India prepares for tiger census in Sunderbans

Wed, 27 Jan 2010

New Delhi — India plans to conduct a tiger census in the Sunderbans forests, an area that lies between India and Bangladesh and is home to the Asiatic tigers, in February and preparations are underway to hold it with DNA sampling for checking the head count, news reports said Wednesday.

According to Pradeep Vyas, director of the Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) the exercise will be conducted after field training of staff was over. Over 200 forest guards will be on duty to assist the staff who will conduct the census .

For the first time, DNA sampling method would be tried for the tiger head count in the famous mangrove forest, he has been quoted as saying.

India's ministry of Environment and Forests last week announced it was negotiating an integrated coastal zone management project worth USD $ 200 million with the World Bank, of which $ 50 million will be allocated for the world's largest mangrove forests in the estuarine islands of the Sunderbans.

Federal Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh said the funds, to be utilized over a 5-year period, will be employed in projects relating to eco tourism, coastal erosion protection, improvement of the livelihood of the people who live in the fringe areas of the forests, construction of cyclone shelters, electrification projects and building capacity of universities and institute that provide technical support.

The project is expected to come through by June this year, he said adding that the Sunderbans Development Board will be responsible for the control and management of these funds.

The Sunderbans is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world.

The forest lies at the feet of the River Ganges and is spread across areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, forming the seaward fringe of the delta. The seasonally-flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lie inland from the mangrove forests. The forest covers 10,000 kms. of which about 6,000 are in Bangladesh.

The area is known for the eponymous Royal Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), as well as numerous fauna including species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes. It is estimated that there are now 500 Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area.

The fertile soils of the delta have been subject to intensive human use for centuries, and the eco-region has been mostly converted to intensive agriculture, with few enclaves of forest remaining.

The remaining forests, together with the Sunderbans mangroves, are important habitat for the endangered tigers. Additionally, the area serves a crucial function as a protective flood barrier for the millions of inhabitants in and around Kolkata (Calcutta) against the result of cyclone activity.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306077,dna-sampling-to-be-used-as-india-prepares-for-tiger.html.