Reintroduction of tigers in Buxa: What it means for conservation | Explained

On October 2, 2026 a three-year-old tigress, T138, was released into the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal marking the beginning of a phased programme to reintroduce tigers and establish a viable, self-sustaining population in the reserve. Two to three more tigers are likely to be added to the reserve which has not recorded much presence of tigers over the past few years.The tigress was translocated from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve and released in the presence of Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.Initially the tigress would be kept in an enclosed area of about 2.3 hectares to allow the animal to acclimatise to its new surroundings before it is released into the wider reserve. T138 would be subject to intensive post-release monitoring using a combination of telemetry, camera trapping and field-based monitoring to assess her movement, adaptation, health and behaviour.The release of the tigress is not is not merely about bringing tigers back to Buxa but its “objective is to create the conditions in which a tiger population can establish, breed and ultimately become viable and self-sustaining,” PIB said in a statement.Why is Buxa Tiger Reserve significant?Buxa was declared a tiger reserve in 1983 and is the 15 th tiger reserve in the country. Buxa Tiger Reserve is situated in the Alipurduar Sub-division of Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal.With an area of 760.87 sq km, the reserve stretches over a length of 50 km from west to east and 35 km from north to south. The reserve has corridor connectivity across the border with the forests of Bhutan in the north, on the east it has linkages with the Kochugaon forests, Manas Tiger Reserve and on the West with the Jaldapara National Park.One of the reasons for low tiger density has been changes in the habitat due to increasing anthropogenic pressure. “Over the decades, however, habitat degradation and fragmentation, changes in land use and decline in prey availability have affected the ecological conditions required to sustain a resident tiger population. The Reserve subsequently witnessed a prolonged absence of a stable resident tiger population,” a PIB statement said.Why was Valmiki Tiger Reserve selected for bringing the tigress?The National Tiger Conservation Authority found that there were no tigers at Buxa, Dampa and Palamu tiger reserves it initiated a programme of reintroduction of tigers in 2018, which has resulted in re-introduction of tigers at Buxa. Scientists and forest officials were looking for a similar habitat like Buxa from where the tiger may be brought to the reserve. Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve which lies in the eastern most part of the Terai Arc Landscape, was considered suitable for tiger augmentation because of the similarities in terrain with Buxa.West Bengal has a thriving tiger population in the Sundarbans, the only mangrove forest in the world to have tigers. As per the last census, the Indian Sundarbans is home to about 100 tigers in the unique mangrove ecosystem. However, translocating tigers from Sundarban to Buxa may not have worked because of the vast differences in the terrain and the habitat.What has been the experience with reintroduction of tigers ?Tiger ‘reintroduction’ done in India is the first such scientific endeavour in the world, says NTCA. Reintroducing tigers in the Indian context means establishing a tiger population in an area which was part of its historical range but from where it has gone locally extinct.The tiger reintroduction has been a successful collaborative venture between the NTCA State Governments and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) with numbers of tigers increasing in reserves where the exercise was carried out.The reintroduction started in 2008 when tigers were successfully reintroduced in Sariska (Rajasthan) and Panna (Madhya Pradesh) Tiger Reserves. Tiger reintroduction programme has been carried out across 12 tiger reserves in less than two decades. The success of the programme, however, has not been uniform across the reserves.A publication titled “Reintroduction & Population Recovery of Tigers in India: Field Experiences & Key Learnings” released by NTCA and WII earlier this year has pointed out that relocation of tigers in Satkosia Tiger Reserve posed several challenges. “The translocated tigers encountered difficulties in adapting to the new environment, and the landscape experienced considerable human-tiger conflict, including incidents of livestock depredation and negative local responses,” the report said. The NTCA website also added that in the past there are few examples of tiger ‘release’ (Dongarpur in Rajasthan and in Russia) which were not successful owing to several factors.Considering these challenges in mind, the NTCA has prepared a protocol on tiger re-introduction. The protocol deals with aims and objectives of reintroduction, constitution of team, pre-project activities, conducting feasibility study, selection and evaluation of site, suitability of release stock of tigers, socio-economic requirements, preparation for release and post release activities.What are the challenges of tiger reintroduction at Buxa ? Buxa Tiger Reserve did not have a resident tiger for the past several years, though on some occasions tigers have been recorded in the winter months. The reserve is dotted with settlements and surrounded by revenue villages and tea estates. The state government has convinced about 300 families to relocate so that they can make the tiger reintroduction exercise successful. Wildlife, particularly elephants have been threatened by linear infrastructure including a railway line, resulting in deaths of hundreds of pachyderms over the decade. Because the region lies close to Bhutan, heavy commercial traffic on the road connecting Bhutan and West Bengal through Buxa poses an additional concern.