Durga Puja festival in Kolkata focuses on Royal Bengal Tiger conservation

Residents in Kolkata have set up an elaborately crafted temporary Durga Puja structure based on the theme of safeguarding the Sundarbans Forest and Wetlands, as also ensuring the preservation of the Royal Bengal Tiger.

The Royal Bengal Tigers have been under threat from habitat destruction, illegal trade for body parts, natural calamities and poachers.

?"Sea water level in Sundarbans is rising and in future sometime it may come up that Sundarbans may go down below the sea level and that will endanger whole of south Bengal, along with Kolkata. So for our future generation, to live them safely, we should protect Sundarbans forest and we should, for protecting Sundarbans forest, tigers have to be protected and people should be aware that how to protect Sundarbans forest,?" said pandal organiser, Debasis Sengupta.

The four-day Durga Puja festival is the biggest Hindu festival in east India. In Kolkata alone, more than 10,000 pandals in various themes are set up to venerate the mother goddess Durga.

People from all over the country visit the city at this time, and it is considered a matter of great pride and honor for local communities if their pandals are praised for originality and getting the most visitors.

Legend has it that ?Asuras? or demons from the underworld invaded the heavens after a hundred years of war with the gods. It is also believed that the Goddess makes her annual visit to the world and the festivities are meant to welcome her.

?This pandal is the representation of Sundarbans forest and the theme is tiger preservation, which is a good message,? said a visitor, Payal Sarkar.

The festival culminates with the immersion of the idols of Durga into water bodies.

Sundarbans forest stretches across part of Bangladesh and India and has been designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

Tiger conservation is a hot-button issue in India, which pits the need to preserve wildlife against the development needs of a country with blistering economic growth rates but hundreds of millions living below the poverty line.

In 2011, India had 1,706 tigers, or more than half the world's population of the endangered species. The total area where tigers were found has fallen to 72,800 sq km (28,100 sq miles) from 93,600 sq km (36,100 sq miles) over three years.

According to West Bengal?s forest department, there were 103 Royal Bengal Tigers in the Sundarbans in 2013 but the number of striped cats, which usually weigh over 200 kg (440 pounds) when fully grown, is in danger.