The 500sqkm reserve, 127km from the state capital Aizawl, is the lone tiger habitat in Mizoram.
There are six tigers in the reserve, according to the last census conducted a couple of years ago.
Its other inhabitants include leopards, Indian bisons, elephants, hoolock gibbons, common langurs, slow loris and wild boars along with some rare birds like Hume’s bartailed pheasant, white-cheeked hill partridge, great pied hornbill and the Kaleej pheasant.
Mizoram chief minister and the Mizoram Board for Wildlife chairman Lalthanhawla stressed the need for an in-depth survey of the international border in the reserve during a meeting of the board in Aizawl yesterday. He said the board should clear the project as soon as possible and send it to the National Board for Wildlife in New Delhi for its final clearance.
A senior Mizoram forest department official today said the construction of the border fence in the reserve, which had been on hold since the past six years, could get off the ground only after the National Board for Wildlife cleared it.
Fencing of the border in the tiger reserve has become urgent to check infiltration by Chakma, Reang and Islamist militants from Bangladesh.
The official said the Centre had already agreed to maintain seven 100 metre-wide animal corridors in the fence to allow animals from both sides of the border roam freely in the forests on either side.
He said the Union home ministry had also granted permission to the BSF to build a few border outposts with the Mizoram government’s concurrence.
The Mizoram State Board for Wildlife has 30 members, of which 26 attended yesterday’s meeting. Mizoram minister for forests and environment H. Rohluna is its vice-chairman.