Male tigers from Bangladesh hunt for mates in Sundarbans

SUNDARBANS (West Bengal): The issue of infiltration from Bangladesh may keep raising the political temperature from time to time, but there's one movement into the West Bengal end of the Sundarbans from India's eastern neighbour that doesn't raise hackles, for these are male tigers that come looking for female companionship on the Indian side.

For tigers, there are no borders, so the ones on the Bangladesh side of the Sundarbans in Khulna district keep straying into the West Bengal end of these extensive stretches of mangrove forests, which are among the largest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

These are usually lonely males seeking female mates, according to local forest guards who monitor their movements closely so that their influx doesn't intensify animal-human conflicts that are rampant in the region. Since January this year, the forest department has recorded four such instances of straying. Throwing light on the phenomenon, West Bengal's Forest Minister, Jyotipriya Malik, said these tigers from Bangladesh usually show up on the Indian side during the mating season, which falls between November and January. And because humans and tigers live cheek by jowl in the Sundarbans, the striped visitors tend to stray into the villages.

Soma Sorkhel, who has been studying the big cats of Sundarbans, added that one of the reasons for the straying of tigers from Bangladesh might be the fights that take place among male tigers over a female they fancy. Generally, the male tigers who lose the battle of possession have to leave the area after the fight is over. So they enter the villages on the fringes of the forest.

The officials have also been trying to establish the pattern of movements of these big cats. They lay traps with baits to capture the stray tigers. On occasions, they contemplate playing audio recordings of the roars of female tigers or using tranquiliser guns, but the strays are hard to pin down. (IANS)

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