According to the forest department, bandits used to hunt tigers every day. However, now as a result of joint operations and patrolling, tigers are getting protection. The reproduction rate of tigers has also increased. From 2010 to 2018, an average of about four to five people died in tiger attacks. In the last two years this number came down to two. They were killed while doing something in the forest or while extracting honey. Many of those killed in the tiger attacks were members of teams that had infiltrated into the forest illegally.
The Forest Department says that tigers are being counted under the Tiger Reservation Project. The project was officially approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on March 23 last year. The project involves relocating tigers within the Sundarbans, fitting satellite collars on the bodies of at least two tigers for monitoring, diagnosis of tiger diseases and parasitic infections, and data collection and analysis.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, project director Mohsin Hussain said, “The entire survey will be finished before International Tiger Day on July 29. We will publish the final result of the project by then.