Sundarban will become the country's second largest tiger reserve, area expanded by 1044 sq km

                 

Kolkata: After a long wait of 11 years, Sundarban Tiger Reserve (STR) has finally got a big gift. The National Board of Wildlife has approved the proposal to expand its boundary. With this, Sundarban is going to become the country's second largest tiger reserve.Till now the tiger reserve area of ​​Sundarban was spread over two thousand 585 square kilometers, which has been increased by 1,044 square kilometers to three thousand 629 square kilometers. After this expansion, only Nagarjuna Sagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (three thousand 727 sq km) of Andhra Pradesh will be larger than this in the entire country.

    Under the new decision, three ranges of South 24 Parganas Forest Division—Raidighi, Ramganga and Matla—will be included in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve. Till now the reserve included only four ranges (National Park-East, National Park-West, Sajnekhali and Basirhat). The newly added area of ​​1,044 sq km will be declared as "buffer zone".

    The number of tigers in Sundarbans has reached 101 including the tigers already present in the forests of these three ranges. Experts believe that this expansion will promote scientific management for tiger conservation and forest workers will also get better resources and facilities.

    The first proposal for Sundarban expansion was given in 2014. In 2023, the State Wildlife Board approved it, after which the state government and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) also agreed. The final seal was put in the meeting of the National Board of Wildlife.

    An official of the state forest department said on Wednesday night that after the approval of the board, now the state government will decide how much of the new area will be the core zone and how much buffer zone. After this, by issuing a notification, the Sundarban Tiger Reserve will officially come out in a new form.