Kolkata: Buxa Tiger Reserve, a favourite holiday destination for wildlife lovers where tales abound of phantom tiger sightings, may have finally regained its stripes. A report by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has concluded that the North Bengal reserve — which has never had a steady tiger population and hasn’t reported asighting for over a decade — is home to 20 tigers, four of which are female. “The report was sent to us last week,” said S B Mondal, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife). “The scientists have done a DNA analysis of the scat samples . We always knew there were tigers in the park, but the sightings were low. Now, with the CCMB’s report of 20 tigers, we have enough reason to back our claims,” he said. S Shivaji of CCMB confirmed the outcome, but refused to divulge details, saying only the Bengal government was authorized to comment. Awildlife expert, who didn’t want to be quoted, said such DNA studies did not necessarily give the correct information. “There are chances of over estimation and decaying in samples collected,” he said. ‘Tiger gender ratio not normal’. Experts are fearing presence of only ‘dispersing’ tigers — those from other forests —in the park due to a noticeable variation in the sex ratio. 13 African cheetahs to land in MP sanctuary T he fastest land animal on earth, the cheetah, would be flown into Madhya Pradesh once the MP forest department gets the import licence to bring the first 13 of the cats from the forests of Namibia , to the Palpur-Kuna sanctuary in Sheopur. This will herald the cheetah introduction programme in India, 59 years after the last of them were wiped out in the country. The last cheetah in India had died in Sarguja — now in Chhattisgarh— in 1947, according to wildlife experts. TNN