Context
A Royal Bengal tigress captured in Bihar is set to be released in West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve, marking the beginning of a planned tiger reintroduction programme. The initiative seeks to restore a viable tiger population in a reserve where no tigers were detected by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) by 2018.
Explanation
- Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) is located in Alipurduar district, West Bengal, near the Bhutan border.
- Buxa has lacked a stable, resident tiger population since around 2014 due to historical habitat fragmentation and degradation.
- Buxa faces dense closed-canopy forests, declining grasslands and low chital density, reducing natural prey availability.Habitat fragmentation from roads, railways, tea estates and settlements can obstruct animal movement.
- Tiger reintroduction involves releasing animals into an area from which their population has disappeared or become functionally absent.
- Successful reintroduction requires adequate prey base, suitable habitat, genetic diversity and wildlife corridors. Authorities have undertaken chital augmentation, canopy opening and grassland restoration.
- India’s tiger conservation operates under Project Tiger (1973) and the NTCA, constituted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The Bengal tiger (also called Indian Tiger) is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Long-term conservation requires habitat restoration, corridor protection and human-wildlife conflict mitigation.
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