Buxa Tiger Reserve in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal has been reduced to resort thanks to latest tourism booster launched by the government of West Bengal.
Palash Biswas
https://youtu.be/sSqxJwx4Tp0
Buxa Tiger Reserve in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal has been reduced to resort thanks to latest tourism booster launched by the government of West Bengal.Bengali daily Ei Samay has published a detailed report that the PORTO Mantri plans to make no less than fifty four cottage right into the heart of the CORE TIGER PROJECT Area.
Mind you,it had been the logic of Marichjhanpi Genocide way back in January,1979 that the refugees captured the island situated in the Core Tiger Project of Sunder Bans.Of course,it was not a core area at all.
At the time,I was a filan year student in MA in Nainital and had been engaged in Chipko Movement.
My father,a refugee leader,Pulin Babu was very confused as refugees from all five big refugee camps in Madhya Pradesh and those resettled in Andhra,Orissa,MP (including Chattishgargh) and Maharashtra under Dandakaranya project had decided to return to Bengal and they chose to make Marichjhanpi their homeland.
My father believed that the refugee should stay where ever they have been settled.But he was very worried about the plight of Dandakaranya refugees.He discussed the problem with me.
I knew it was not a Tiger Project.But I knew well that the island is in between Sudhanyakhali and Gosaba,the entry point of the core area.I could not support the movement as I believed that no government should allow this adventure right into the Mangrove Forest area and it would opt for repression.
I told my father that I was not concerned with politics but I would not support this movement as an environment activist as well as a student of politics.it is bound to be a disaster which it turned out to be.Though my father had been very committed to refugee cause countrywide,he valued my opinoion and he decided NOT TO Support Marichjhanpi movement.For this decision,no refugee from North India and even form North East opted for exodus into the Mangrove forst.
Marichjhapi refugees denied justice.They were invited by the LEFT and the Left front government massacred them in January, 1979.Since no FIR lodged.No enquiry ordered and Bengal as well as Bengali iconic intelligetsia kept mum for almost 35 years.
The Mangrove forest is Sunder Bans have been gifted away to private parties.As the Andaman and Nicober Islands haveto be gifted away,it has been decided.
Thus,no wonder,the government of West Bengal follows suit!
News agencies already have reported that Foresters: Tiger habitat in Buxa Tiger Reserve has shrunk!
Amid concerns that tigers may have disappeared from West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve, foresters have claimed that the habitat of the big cat has shrunk to a small area on the foothills.”Tigers have not disappeared from Buxa. The habitat has moved to the foothills of Buxa which are close to Bhutan border. Tiger habitat is there on both sides of the border,” a top forest department official told PTI.(READ: Tiger population in North Eastern hill up )
He said human settlement along the forest and cattle- grazing have forced tigers to move away from their habitat, which once spread across Buxa forest in north Bengal.The last census, based on scat analysis and pug mark identification, indicated that there are three tigers in BTR, which borders the forests of Bhutan and Assam’s Manas Tiger Reserve.As no photographic evidence was found despite the presence of camera traps, many wildlife experts have raised doubts about the presence of big cats in Buxa.
When asked why no tigers been caught on camera so far, another forest official said the jungle is very dense which makes the animal tough to spot.State Wildlife Board member Biswajit Roychowdhury, who had participated in the last census, said they had found evidence of the presence of the big cats along Bhutan border but were not sure whether they were resident tigers.”We found evidence but it is tough to say whether those tigers whose pug marks and scat we found in Buxa are residents or transitory ones coming from Bhutan,” he said.
Modified Date: July 14, 2015 10:47 AM
Buxa Tiger Reserve (B.T.R.) is situated in Alipurduar Sub-division of Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal. It comprises of the entire erstwhile Buxa Forest Division (702.44 km2), and a part of Cooch- Behar Forest Division (58.43 km2). The Reserve lies between latitudes 26o30′ and 26o55′ N and longitudes 89o20′ and 89o55′ E.
The Head quarter of Buxa Tiger Reserve is located at Alipurduar Town. The nearest Broad-gauge railway station (New Alipurduar) is located at the out skirts of the town. Alipurduar is linked by train to Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati. The town is on the broad gauge line of the North -East Frontier Railway connecting Siliguri and Guwahati. The Reserve can be approached by road (30 Km.) from Cooch Behar. The nearest airport is at Bagdogra near Siliguri (175 Km. away). Bagdogra is connected to Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati by air. From Siliguri, Alipurduar can be approached by train (broad-gauge) or by road. Alipurduar is 720 Km away from Kolkata by train. There are a number of direct trains from Kolkata and Delhi to Alipurduar.
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