Kolkata, Dec 8 (IANS): The West Bengal forest department is likely to issue a list of tentative number of Royal Bengal Tigers present in the Sunderbans next month.

A senior official in the forest department said the process of tiger census in the Sunderbans for the year started on November 27 and it is scheduled to be completed on January 12.

“After the process is completed, a tentative number of tigers might be announced by the department,” he said.

The official added that a total of 1,600 camera traps have been installed at 732 locations in the entire Sunderbans, covering 40 forest areas.

“The work for collection of the footage from the camera traps will start on January 2. Last year, the number of tigers in the Sunderbans area crossed 100, and this year we expect the numbers to go up,” the official said.

Recently, the state government had released a substantial number of deer in the mangrove forests.

“This was to ensure that the tigers do not reach the human habitations or buffer zones in search of food,” the official said.