The recent birth of two Royal Bengal tiger cubs has taken the total big cat population in Assam's Orang National Park to sixteen (16).

Divisional forest officer of Orang National Park S Daila said on Monday that the villagers had informed them last week that they had spotted two tiger cubs and this was later confirmed when the park authorities spotted the cubs playing with their mother near the Kachumari anti-poaching camp.

The cubs -a male and a female- were probably born in May and the pregnant tigress was spotted last in March.

Daila said that the park authorities were constantly monitoring the movement of the two cubs and they both looked healthy.

Fourteen tigers were detected in this national park during a census conducted last year.

Orang National Park, spread over 78.80 square km on the northern bank of Brahmaputra, is a rich wildlife habitat with several species of animals.

Besides these two cubs, the Park has also witnessed the birth of at least 10 rhino calves during the past few months which is 'indeed a positive development', Daila added.