Sunday, May 15 2005 10:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Agartala: Tigers may be disappearing from Sariska or some other reserve forests but the great Royal Bengal tiger has been spotted in Tripura, which never had the big cat for last three decades.

A team of Dehra Dun-based Wildlife Institute of India, led by Sabyasachi Dasgupta, spotted a Royal Bengal tigress with two babies in the Trishna reserve forest where they had gone to study the status of bison recently, said conservator of forests Asish K Roy.

He said Dasgupta had himself come across the striped carnivore three times.

Tracking of the pugmarks confirmed that the Bengal tiger is present in the State, the annual report of the Wildlife Institute said.

Tripura has not had tiger since 1976 though cheetah and leopards are there.

The Central Government is now considering inclusion of Tripura in project tiger for protection of and conducting research on the big cat.

Sources in State forest department said the 194 sq km Trishna sanctuary can be a good habitat for Bengal tiger.

Other than its original habitat in the Sundarbans forest spread across West Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh, this variety of big cat is present in Nepal and Bhutan.

But with Tripura having no border with Bhutan or Nepal, the question arises how Royal Bengal tiger came into the State?

It may be that the Bengal tiger entered Tripura from Bangladesh through an elephant corridor, said the director of Sundarban bio-sphere Reserve, Atanu Raha.

Forest officials in Tripura said there is an elephant corridor connecting Trishna reserve forest and Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh through which many elephants from Tripura had migrated to Bangladesh about three decades ago when the Damboor hydel project was constructed.

But still it is a mystery how the tiger entered Tripura because there is no report that Bengal tiger is available in Chittagong hill tracts, a forest official said.

Roy said the Wildlife Institute of Dehra Dun has decided to send a group of wildlife photographers to Trishna reserve forest to take photographs of the striped carnivore.