New Delhi: A three-year-old tigress from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve was released into the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal on 2 October, as part of the state’s first tiger relocation programme. Situated in northern West Bengal in the Jalpaiguri district, the Buxa Tiger Reserve has not seen a tiger in its premises since 2012.
While there have been occasional tiger sightings in Buxa Tiger Reserve in 2021, 2025 and 2026, there has not been a resident tiger in the region for decades.
The tigress was tranquilised and airlifted from Bihar on 30 September in an Indian Air Force aircraft, brought to the Hasimara airbase, and then taken by road to Buxa. She was being kept in a soft enclosure inside the tiger reserve until now but was officially released into the wild on 2 October by West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari. Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, was also in attendance.
On Thursday, the West Bengal Forest Minister Manoj Kumar Oraon shared a camera trap video of the tigress in the enclosure in Buxa, where she was seen playing in a pond at night.
TIGER ZINDA HAI pic.twitter.com/0uFuZbPMEQ
— Manoj Kumar Oraon (@manojoraonbjp) September 30, 2026
The 760 sq km tiger reserve has been shut for tourists until 3 October, to accommodate the relocation project, and allow the tigress time to acclimatise to its new surroundings.
Buxa Tiger Reserve
Buxa Tiger Reserve was created in 1983, as India’s 15th tiger reserve. Historically, the region had a strong tiger population, owing to its central location in between Bhutan’s forests in the north, and Manas Tiger Reserve and Jaldapara National Park in the west and the east, respectively.
Since 2012, however, the reserve has not seen any resident tigers because of low prey density. Tiger sightings in Buxa are rare, and mainly through pug marks and scat droppings, rather than real camera-trapped tigers. In the 2018 Tiger Census, no tigers were spotted in the reserve. In 2022, a solitary tiger was spotted.
The current Tiger Relocation Project is being funded centrally by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), and was finalised in July 2026. Oraon had announced that 10-12 tigresses have been pre-selected for the relocation project, and the final candidate will be selected closer to the date.
Not the first tiger relocation project
Successful tiger relocation projects have happened in other states of India; notably in Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan in 2008, after tigers had completely become extinct from the region due to the lack of prey.
Before the relocation, around 400 families were moved from the core regions of the Buxa Tiger Reserve, as part of the NTCA’s tiger relocation norms. The reserve’s prey base was also augmented with sufficient deer population, to ensure the relocated tigress has enough to hunt once it arrives.
The tigress is part of a broader relocation strategy, which will involve future relocations, as well as enhancement of the prey base, grasslands management and broader reserve management.
Originally, the plan to relocate tigers to Buxa Tiger Reserve under NTCA’s Project Tiger was approved in 2017, with an outlay of Rs 558 lakh. There were plans to relocate tigers to Buxa from other tiger reserves like the Sunderbans. However, it was later decided that it would be better to relocate tigers from similar topography to Buxa, such as Assam and Bihar. Valmiki Tiger Reserve was then chosen for the relocation.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)