West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday urged residents of the Terai-Dooars region to protect forests and wildlife, while announcing a tourism-focused development vision for north Bengal at a World Rhino Day programme in Alipurduar.
Addressing the event at Nilpara, Adhikari said the government wanted the Terai-Dooars to emerge as a global tourism destination within a year. He said the region’s forests, wildlife and natural attractions would form the foundation of that ambition, and called on local communities to take responsibility for protecting the natural environment.
“The responsibility of protecting nature and wildlife is yours. If we can protect our forests and wildlife, we can develop the Terai-Dooars as a world tourism destination,” Adhikari said, according to the report. The programme was organised by the Alipurduar district administration and the state Forest Department.
The event also included the destruction of seized wildlife body parts recovered during anti-poaching and anti-smuggling operations. Adhikari set fire to around 142 kg of seized single-horned rhino horns in a furnace. Other material, including deer antlers, skins and additional wildlife products, was also destroyed.
The destruction was presented as a measure to prevent confiscated wildlife products from re-entering illegal trade or being reused by smugglers. The government’s stated message was that wildlife body parts have no commercial value and that the real value lies in living animals. The seized material was destroyed through a traditional ritual and chanting ceremony.
The programme linked conservation with the region’s tourism economy. Adhikari said the protection of nature and wildlife was essential to developing the Terai-Dooars as a tourism destination, placing forests and animal habitats at the centre of the area’s proposed development strategy. He also visited stalls displaying rhino conservation material, wildlife habitats, tribal art and handicrafts.
State Forest Minister Manoj Kumar Oraon said north Bengal now had more than 390 rhinos, including more than 330 in Gorumara. He recalled that the regional rhino population had fallen to 14 in 1985 before sustained conservation efforts helped it recover.
The event also set out the next planned wildlife intervention in the region. Adhikari announced that he would return to Alipurduar on October 2 for the release of a tigress in Buxa Tiger Reserve. Oraon said the tigress would be brought from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve and released in Buxa during a programme attended by the chief minister and other dignitaries.
The release and the destruction of confiscated wildlife material are the next scheduled actions identified at the programme, as the state administration seeks to combine anti-smuggling enforcement, habitat protection and tourism promotion in the Terai-Dooars.
