Tyger, tyger, counting right

Sporting work, this:

More than 450 game wardens, medical workers and volunteers wearing fiberglass protective vests and carrying nets, ropes and guns set out Wednesday to conduct a tiger census in the Sundarbans delta in eastern India.

The 6,000-square-mile delta, the world's largest mangrove forest, is divided roughly in half between India and Bangladesh. For the next week, 23 teams will scour the forest and collect tiger footprints, traveling mostly by boat and doing their best to avoid attack.

"Tigers here are more aggressive because they have to live in a harsh habitat of water and mud," Predeep Vyas, field director of the Sundarbans tiger reserve, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "We have to be very careful in doing the work". . .

Mr. Vyas said the workers, traveling in boats in teams of 8 to 10, use binoculars to spot tiger tracks. When the boats approach shore, two armed guards jump off first. As medical teams stand by in case of an attack, other workers erect safety nets to prevent tigers from lunging out of the dense underbrush.

Posted by David on January 15, 2004 5:17 PM