The successful breeding of royal Bengal tigers at the Bengal Safari Park near here in the past three years has made the state forest department plan to start a full-fledged tiger conservation and breeding centre at the facility.

The North Bengal Wild Animal Park — commonly known as the Bengal Safari Park — is the first-of-its-kind facility in the state where visitors can take tour in vehicles to see various animals, including tigers.

Since 2019, eleven tiger cubs were born at the park, though two of them died shortly after birth because of health ailments. The nine cubs were released into the park which has two adults — a male and a female — also.

“Frequent birth of cubs has increased the tiger population at the park. That is why we have decided to open a tiger conservation and breeding centre here and will send a proposal for the same to the Central Zoo Authority of India (CZAI) seeking its permission,” said Sourav Choudhury, the member secretary of West Bengal State Zoo Authority.

Choudhury, along with state forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick, had been to the park on Monday when four tiger cubs — two males and females each — were named and released into the enclosure for public viewing.

“Because of the rise in the tiger population, we have already built three more rooms for the animal in the enclosure. A decision has also been taken to expand the tiger’s enclosure area, which is around 20 hectares now, by another eight hectares,” he said.

The park authorities are also planning to develop a “walking bird aviary”, where birds will be kept in open air and visitors can see the avian species moving through a cage.

“Proposals to bring in new species of animals like lion, sloth bear and dancing deer have been approved by the state zoo authority. These would be brought from zoological parks in other states under the animal exchange programme,” said a source.

According to him, lions are likely to be brought in from the zoo in Agra or Hyderabad, sloth bear from Ranchi and deer from Manipur.

The Bengal forest department, sources said, is also gearing up for the re-introduction of the royal Bengal tiger in the Buxa Tiger Reserve of Alipurduar district and one-horn rhino at Patlakhawa in the neighbouring Cooch Behar district.

“We are expecting some positive developments in this regard in another six months. The site at Patlakhawa has been readied and herbivores have been released into Buxa to maintain a steady prey base for tigers,” said a forest department officer.