The Sundarban Tiger

[Rishi]

(01-07-2018, 10:03 AM)Greatearth Wrote: The Bangladesh side is pretty neglected though...

To put thing into perspective. Here's the Protected Area on Indian side:

*This image is copyright of its original author

The 2500km² tiger reserve has about 70-90 tigers & the fringe islands to the west (reserve forest) has another 20-25.
Royal Bengal Tiger count in Sunderbans is 103

And here's the Protected Area in Bangladesh side:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Of the 6000 km² that remains of their forests, less than 350 km² (land) is Protected Area. The rest is Reserve Forest which are still harvested, risking both tigers & humans.

The tiger numbers on that side is averaged at 105.

Here's the respective tiger densities:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

The previous census had pegged the numbers at 275 & 440 in Indian & Bangladeshi side respectively using the flawed pugmark-method (and/or inflated to a ridiculous extent). In India such numbers were doubted & we swiftly switched to camera-trapping. That gave us the, much lower, true numbers...

Now, when western media reports it, they ALWAYS have a headline like:
"Bangladesh's (in wrong pronunciation) Sundarbans (worse pronunciation) left with only 100 tigers, down from 440 few years ago."

Erm... NO. Sundarban hasn't been large enough to house that many tigers in past few hundred years!
What's worse is that India's national media copies from them & show the same horse****. Only the small local media houses care to do a proper study & present accurate story.

Indian Sunderbans roars past Bangladesh in tiger density count
Krishnendu Mukherjee | Updated: Apr 9, 2018

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KOLKATA: The Bangladesh Sunderbans, by virtue of its larger area, has few more tigers compared with the Indian side, but the scientists, after collating findings at the mangrove forests of both countries, have said that the Indian Sunderbans has 4 tigers per 100sq km, almost twice that of the Bangladesh side.
The findings, they said, point to better management in the Indian Sunderbans.

*This image is copyright of its original author

“The Bangladesh Sunderbans has a bigger area and the tiger-occupied habitat, too, is higher on that side, but the density is just 2.17 tigers per 100sq km, almost half of that in the Indian Sunderbans,” said Y V Jhala, senior scientist, Wildlife Institute of India.Interestingly, the tiger-occupied area of the Bangladeshi side is also larger: 4,832sq km, compared with India’s 1,841sq km, according to a recent report on Indo-Bangla tiger estimation.
So, why the lower density on the Bangladeshi side? “The reason is poaching, mainly of prey animals,” Jhala said.
“The encounter rate of human sign and sighting was higher in Bangladesh Sunderbans which is further exacerbated by the usage of river channels for transportation of commercial vehicles,” says the report ‘Status of Tigers in the Sunderbans Landscape of Bangladesh and India'.

Since the tiger-occupied area is higher on the Bangladeshi side, that part of the forest has more tigers despite a lower density. “But I believe the tiger population in the Bangladeshi Sunderbans is much below the actual carrying capacity, while the Indian side has reached carrying capacity,” Jhala added.

The exercise, conducted in the last few years, has recorded the highest tiger density in the Sajnekhali range of the Indian Sunderbans; the lowest was recorded in Bangladesh’s Khulna range.

The second phase of camera-trap exercise in the Sunderbans will begin on November 17 Reply