The forest department has started counting and monitoring tiger movements and footprints in the world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarbans.

As part of it, a total of 665 cameras will be installed in Sundarbans for the census.

On December 15, the Forest Department began creeks and rivers surveying in Sundarbans under the Sundarbans Tiger Conservation Project. The tasks to install cameras will be started from January 1. The result of the census would be found in June 2024.

Forest division sources said, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change approved a project titled ‘Sundarban Tiger Conservation Project’ on March 23 this year. The cost of the project was estimated at Tk 35.93 crore. Of the total budget, the cost of the tiger census project was estimated at Tk 3.21 crore. The duration of the project is fixed from April this year to June 2025.

The main activities of the project include – providing training and clothing to 340 members of 49 Village Tiger Response Teams and 185 members of 4 Range Community Patrol Groups and monthly meetings with forest staff.