Kolkata: West Bengal for the first time will count big herbivores such as deer and elephants while undertaking the tiger census this year, a senior forest official said on Wednesday.
Earlier, the tiger census was done solely focussing on the big cats but from this year, the population of big herbivores will be included in the count as stipulated by the All India Coordinated Tiger Census, Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Roy told PTI.
"Herbivores are important to the ecosystem inhabited by tigers. Thus, it is imperative to know how many herbivores are co-existing with tigers in a forest area," he explained. Deer, antelopes, gaurs, rhinoceroses, and elephants will be counted depending on the region, Roy said.
While the 2019-2020 census put the number of tigers in Sunderbans at 95, the Forest Department is hopeful the upcoming census that will begin in December and continue till January will throw up higher figures.
