Siliguri, Nov 1 (IANS) The West Bengal government has decided to provide identity cards to Indian forest officials and members of the special task force controlling elephant movement through the country's borders with Nepal here, Forest Minister Hiten Burman said here Thursday.
The task force was formed sometime back in view of the deaths of elephants in firing as also the damage done by the pachyderms crossing over from India to Nepal or vice versa.
At present, India and Nepal have an open border but government officials cannot go cross over without documents. Moreover, no one is allowed to carry arms from one side to the other.
"The identity cards are needed so that personnel from India can proceed to Nepal smoothly if any elephant is injured on that side of the border," Burman said.
The minister said that number of wild animals in wildlife parks in northern Bengal's Dooars region have gone up as per census reports.
"The population of rhinos and bisons have gone up at Jaldapara and Gorumara parks. The tiger count has also increased by 20 at Buxa Tiger Reserve Forest," he said.
However, when media persons said that physical sighting of these wild animals by tourists have gone down in the wild life parks in recent years, the minister said: "This could be because the areas are close to the Bhutan border and the animals may cross over to the other side any time".
He said arrangements for car safari would be made at the Suriya Park near Siliguri.
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