NAGAON, July 28 - The presence of two cubs of Royal Bengal Tiger trapped by cameras installed in the Laokhowa-Burhachapori wildlife sanctuary recently and the presence of a Royal Bengal Tiger in the sanctuary have categorically proved it as one of the few established breeding grounds for tigers in North East India.
Sources in the Wildlife Division claimed that earlier in 2013, an adult tigress had been first successfully trapped by cameras in the Laokhowa-Burhachapori sanctuary, buffer complex of the Kaziranga tiger reserve. It was found that the female tiger had migrated from the eastern range of the Kaziranga National Park all the way to the Laokhowa-Burhachapori wildlife sanctuary. This event has established Laokhowa-Burhachapori wildlife sanctuary as a tiger habitat and corridor components of the greater central Assam conservancy landscape comprising Kaziranga to the east, Orang to the west with the mighty Brahmaputra acting as an umbilical cord joining all these components with each other, the sources added.
Speaking to this correspondent on Tuesday, TC Ranjith Ram, DFO, Nagaon Wildlife Division, said a census was conducted by the division in the current year as a participatory exercise in which volunteers, as well as researchers, were involved.
Significantly, the elusive mother and the calves were documented in one of the camera traps and the trapping exercise has revealed the presence of four Royal Bengal Tigers including the two cubs, Ram said, adding that it is suspected that there might be another fully grown tiger of the same kind in the first addition to the Laokhowa-Burhachapori wildlife sanctuary and an intensive trapping exercise would be carried out soon after the flood to capture photos of the tiger.
The DFO said the Laokhowa-Burhachapori wildlife sanctuary is playing a pivotal role towards maintaining an obstruction-free corridor for migrating wildlife of Kaziranga and Orang National Parks and also ensuring the healthy genetic exchange between metapopulation of the central Assam conservancy landscape.
