There is some hope for Mr Stripes straying into human habitation in Sundarbans, but none for the limbering Jumbos which are being shot down at the Nepal border, though concern for both the species was voiced by Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, state chief minister at the meeting of the state wildlife board in Writers' Buildings today. The chief minister suggested pig rearing in the Sundarbans to increase the tigers' prey base, but expressed his helplessness on taking up the issue of firing upon the roving elephant herds from the Nepal side with the government of the neighbouring country owing to the "existing political situation of that country'. Mr Ananta Roy, state forest minister said after the meeting that Mr Bhattacharjee was aware of the threat to both the species. With several cases of tigers straying into human habitations being reported recently, the chief minister recommended that increasing the prey base for the tigers would be a deterrent to their straying out of the mangrove jungles. Of late, the killing of elephants at the Indo-Nepal border has also been a cause for concern. But with the end of monarchy in Nepal and the existing political situation in the Himalayan country being in a state of flux, the state government is unable to take up the matter with the Nepalese government. The Jaldapara wildlife sanctuary would be recommended to be elevated to mend the status of a national park, Mr Roy said. This is in keeping with the rise in the rhino and elephant population in this sanctuary, he said. Asked why Sundarbans is not being elevated to the status of a national park, Mr Roy said it is interspersed with human habitation. A more concerted effort would be made to drive the elephant herds in north and south Bengal to keep them away from the crop fields to reduce man-animal conflict, he said. Besides more efforts are to be given to to protect red pandas which are being released from the Darjeeling zoo into the wild. The pandas had died from the attacks of carnivores on an earlier occasion