In a landmark attempt to restore a breeding tiger population in northern West Bengal, a three-year-old tigress from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve has been released into Buxa Tiger Reserve — becoming its first deliberately established resident tigress after decades without a stable tiger population.
Alipurduar, West Bengal | October 2, 2026
A new chapter in the conservation history of Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) began on Friday when a three-year-old Royal Bengal tigress brought from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve was released into the forests of Buxa.
The relocation is the first operation of its kind in West Bengal and represents an ambitious effort to restore a viable tiger population in a reserve where resident tigers had effectively disappeared.
From Valmiki to Buxa
The tigress was captured and tranquilised in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar on September 29 after an intensive tracking operation complicated by heavy rain.
Reports identify her as T138, born in Valmiki in 2023.
She was subsequently transported by an Indian Air Force aircraft to Hasimara Air Force Station in North Bengal and then moved by road to Buxa.
After veterinary examination, she was placed temporarily in a soft-release enclosure inside the reserve, allowing her to recover from the journey and become accustomed to her new surroundings. A camera-trap video subsequently showed her moving around and playing in a pond inside the enclosure.
On October 2, she was formally released into Buxa in the presence of Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Why This Tigress Is So Important
Buxa was established as India’s 15th tiger reserve in 1983, but its tiger population subsequently declined dramatically.
No tiger was detected there during the 2018 national tiger assessment. There have nevertheless been occasional signs and sightings in recent years, including records in 2021, 2025 and 2026. These were not considered evidence of an established resident population.
That distinction makes the newly released tigress particularly significant.
Rather than waiting for a tiger to occasionally enter Buxa from a neighbouring landscape, conservation authorities are now attempting to re-establish resident animals capable eventually of forming a breeding population.
Why Did Tigers Disappear From Buxa?
One of Buxa’s longstanding problems has been its low prey density.
A tiger cannot establish a territory simply because forest cover exists. It needs sufficient populations of deer, wild boar and other prey to survive.
Authorities have therefore been working on habitat improvement and augmentation of Buxa’s prey base ahead of the reintroduction. The relocation programme is intended to combine tiger releases with prey-base enhancement, grassland management, habitat improvement and better reserve management.
ThePrint reported that around 400 families were moved from core areas as part of preparations associated with the programme. However, Wildlife Institute of India material also records continuing forest-village relocation issues elsewhere within Buxa’s core, so the reserve’s social and habitat-management challenges remain significant.
Buxa Occupies a Strategic Wildlife Landscape
Buxa’s importance goes far beyond its own boundaries.
Situated in the Himalayan foothills of northern West Bengal, its forests form part of a larger transboundary wildlife landscape associated with forests towards Bhutan and Assam, while other important protected areas lie across the wider Dooars region.
This connectivity means that restoring Buxa could eventually strengthen tiger conservation at a landscape level rather than simply create an isolated population inside one reserve.
More Tigers Are Coming
The newly released tigress is intended to be only the beginning.
Officials announced on October 2 that three more tigers are planned for release in Buxa over the next two months. The broader five-year project also includes increasing prey availability, improving habitat and wildlife corridors, and reducing human-wildlife conflict.
Earlier plans had considered sourcing tigers from other reserves, including the Sundarbans. Conservation managers eventually favoured animals from landscapes considered more comparable to Buxa, leading to the selection of Valmiki Tiger Reserve as the source for the first relocation.
The Real Test Begins Now
Releasing a tiger is only the first stage of a reintroduction.
The crucial question is whether the tigress can establish a territory, find adequate prey, remain away from heavily populated areas and eventually contribute to a breeding population.
Her movements are therefore expected to be closely monitored.
The experience of India’s earlier tiger reintroduction programmes shows that rebuilding a population requires much more than bringing animals into a reserve. Protection, prey, habitat quality, connectivity and careful long-term monitoring all have to work together.
For Buxa, the arrival of this young tigress nevertheless represents something that the reserve has lacked for decades:
a genuine opportunity to hear the roar of a resident tiger once again.
Source: Akanksha Mishra, ThePrint, October 2, 2026.
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