Amphan’s rains have started to affect the Sundarbans, a vast mangrove forest which crosses India and Bangladesh. The area is a UNESCO world heritage site known for being a habitat for rare and endangered species.
There are currently 96 protected tigers in the Sundarban forest reserve.
“We have a nylon net fence along the whole boundary which has prevented tigers from getting into settlement areas for the last five to six years,” West Bengal’s principal chief conservator of forests and wildlife Ravi Kant Sinha said.
“Our effort is to keep that maintained,” he added on Wednesday.
“If anything happens [to the tigers] we have our rapid response teams with tranquilization nets and traps ready to tackle the situation.”
“[The cyclone] has already started hitting the forest areas, a few of our locations are badly damaged, very high speed winds and water has entered our locations,” Sinha said.
“Since this is a natural sanctuary we don’t do anything to interfere, whatever comes down naturally is left as is but the tigers are all fine.”