Kolkata, Nov 27 (AHN) The formal work for the tiger census commenced in West Bengal’s Sundarbans mangrove forest on Thursday as Forest Department officials began installing a network of more than 1,400 trap cameras to capture images of the Royal Bengal Tigers.

The cameras will be strategically placed in various areas, particularly canal-adjacent spots, with an aim to collect precise scientific data on the big cat population, a senior forest department official said.

Photographs captured by these all-weather night-vision cameras will be sent to Dehradun for image analysis, a crucial step in deriving the final census figure in the Sundarbans.

The Sundarbans, West Bengal’s mangrove forest and home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, will remain closed to tourists on December 11 and 12 as the forest department undertakes its tiger census.

According to directives from the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR), all forms of tourism -- including boat rides, launches, and cruises -- will be suspended during these two days. Even online bookings will be temporarily halted as the department focuses on collecting precise scientific data on the tiger population.

The camera installation has already begun in several areas of the Sundarbans, including Matla, Raidighi, Ramganga, and Sajnekhali. A total of 1,484 cameras are being set up across the forests to continuously monitor tiger movements over an area of 4,100 square km.

The tiger census will run for over a month, tracking not only tiger movements but also the availability of their prey.

"An attempt will be made to see whether there is enough food for tigers in the Sundarbans forests," an official of the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve said, adding the survey will also track the presence of herbivores such as deer, wild boar and other animals that the tigers hunt and eat.

Officials have developed a dedicated app to assist in analysing the data collected from the cameras.

A Sundarbans Tiger Reserve official stated that the effort will help assess whether the forests provide sufficient food for the tiger population.

The last tiger census in 2022, released in late 2024, recorded 101 tigers in the Sundarbans, up from 88 in 2018. Of these, 80 were in the core Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, while 21 were in the adjoining South 24 Parganas division.

Typically conducted once every four years, the Sundarbans tiger census is supplemented by smaller surveys and area-specific observations carried out annually.