AIZAWL, April 16 - At least three tigers have been confirmed, through scientific research, to be roaming in Dampa Tiger Reserve in western Mizoram bordering Bangladesh.
Sources in State Environment, Forests and Climate Change department, said that DNA analysis on 27 samples of scat believed to be of tigers confirmed that nine of the scats were those of three different tigers.
The presence of the big cats were confirmed during a joint field survey conducted with the forest reserve�s field directorate, World Wildlife Fund and �Aaranyak�, a Guwahati-based society for biodiversity conservation, in March this year as part of the country-wide Phase 4 of tiger monitoring programme initiated by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
�We successfully used DNA-based analysis techniques for identifying tiger faecal samples, collected during the joint field survey,� the sources said.
Dampa Tiger Reserve is situated in the western part of Mizoram and is spread in an area of 550 sq km at the international border with Bangladesh. It consists of forest with a difficult terrain interpolated with hills, valleys, streams and rivulet and is a hotspot of bio-diversity with variety of flora and fauna.
NTCA has categorised Dampa Tiger Reserve as one of the low density Tiger Reserves in India with deficiency of data on the current population status of tigers in the area.
