The Centre has finally released a fund of about Rs 3 crore for conservation of Sunderban and Buxa tiger sanctuaries of Bengal.

“The exact amount of fund released by the Centre is not known as we have not received the formal order. However, we are hoping to get approximately Rs 3 crore. This is for the tiger conservation project in Sunderban and Buxa sanctuaries,” said Chief Wildlife Warden (wildlife) S B Mondol.

Last month the West Bengal Government had signed the tripartite agreement with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the directors of the two tiger reserves. The NTCA is the disbursing authority of the Centre for projects on tiger conservation. Field director of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve Subrat Mukherjee and his counterpart in Buxa Tiger Reserve R P Seni were authorised by the state government to sign the MoU.

Sources said for years the Centre had been disbursing funds without an MoU. However, since last year the Centre started the concept of MoU to ensure accountability — claiming that a few states misuse the funds. This year, they started the tripartite MoU concept. This created dissatisfaction among officials in Bengal.

Bengal had received a sum of Rs 1.5 crore for Sunderbans and Rs 1 crore for Buxa reserve last year. This year the state had requested for doubling of the amount.