Wednesday, June 29 2005 14:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Even as the big cats in Sariska have been wiped out and its numbers reported to be dwindling in some other reserves, the tiger count in the Sunderband forests has remained static for several years now.

Tigers in the Sunderbands as well as the forests in North Bengal have been largely free from poaching owing to the involvement of local villagers in conservation efforts, G B Thapliyal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, West Bengal, told sources in Kolkata.

He said the number of tigers in the forests of West Bengal have remained almost static in recent years and the last census had recorded their number at 344, of which 274 are in the Sunderbands.

"The achievement is largely due to our policy of involving local people, who live in and around the forests, in environment protection," Thapliyal said.

"At least 4,000 forest protection committees have been formed in West Bengal for saving the flora and fauna," he said.

The principal chief conservator said the state forest department pays cash incentives to villagers and tribals.

"One fourth of drawings from legal felling of trees in the forests are distributed among these people living in the fringe areas of forests," Thapliyal said.

"The incentive gives the poor villagers much-needed cash and also ensures their loyalty to the forest department. With money in hand, these people do not feel the urge to poach wildlife or to illegally fell trees."

Thapliyal said the villagers desist from providing crucial information on wildlife movement to poachers from outside. It is the locals who have a clear idea of the routes taken by the animals or where a tiger has made a kill.

Nearly five lakh families living in or near the forests get benefit of the cash incentives, the Principal Chief Conservator said. "That is why they feel involved in protecting forests and wildlife."

The State took this step way back in 1984 and this has paid huge dividends in protecting forests and the wildlife, in recognition to which it received the Paul Getty award in 1989, regarded as the Nobel Prize in environment protection.