The Bengal forest department will join hands with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) India to enhance security at the Neora Valley National Park (NVNP) in Kalimpong district to prevent the poaching of the Himalayan Red Panda.

Department sources said they had information that poachers might enter the park to kill the mammals, vulnerable for their fur. “The carcass of a red panda is also stuffed and put on display. Different items like caps and jackets are illegally made with its fur,” said a source.

The NVNP, which extends up to an elevation of 10,000 feet, is a pristine forest and has many remote areas where forest guards cannot reach every day for patrolling. “The terrain, climatic conditions and the dense forest cover are reasons that make it impossible to patrol the entire park area every day,” admitted a forester.

But information about poachers has made the park’s survey a priority, sources said. The red panda apart, the clouded leopard and the royal Bengal tiger have also been sighted in the park.

“We will meet the experts of WWF India soon to prevent poaching of the red panda. Talks will also be held for the improvement of the habitat of the species. All necessary steps will be taken up in this regard,” said Dwijapratim Sen, the divisional forest officer of the Gorumara wildlife division. THe NVNP falls under this division of the state forest department.

Sources said that the red data book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which lists the vulnerability of animal species, marks the red panda as an endangered species.

“The NVNP shares contiguous forest stretches with Sikkim and Bhutan. There is a chance that poachers might also use these routes,” said a forest official.

The WWF India, sources said, will conduct a comprehensive survey on the red panda for its conservation in the NVNP and also in the Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary and the
Shimba Rhododendron Sanctuary in Sikkim.

“This mammal species also lives in both these reserve forests. Like in the NVNP, it is also necessary to find out whether this endangered species is safe in these areas,” the source added.

According to an estimation by the WWF, the population of the red panda is around 10,000. Most of them live in the Eastern Himalayas.

The Bengal forest department also has plans to hold talks with forest officials of Sikkim so that vigilance can be increased in all three reserve forests where the red panda inhabits.

“The plan is to engage more armed forest guards to enhance vigilance in the surroundings of these forests so that no one illegally enters the habitats of the red panda,” said an official.