A three-year-old tigress, T138, was released into the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal on Friday, marking the beginning of a phased programme to reintroduce tigers and establish a viable, self-sustaining population in the reserve.
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. Adhikari said three more tigers would be released in Buxa in the next two months, and the initiative would not only help in conservation of wildlife but also in boosting tourism in the region. “Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for landscape conservation and species protection, today we have fulfilled the significant promise to reintroduce a tiger in Buxa.
Mr. T138 has been brought from Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar to Buxa. Mr. Yadav posted on social media. “The programme is not merely about bringing tigers back to Buxa.
The recovery of Buxa has been a sustained, science-based effort and the Tiger Augmentation and Recovery Project, initiated by the Government of West Bengal with support from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), has been implemented collaboratively since 2018, according to the statement. West Bengal also has a resident tiger population in the Sundarbans, where the last tiger census has revealed the presence of 100 tigers in the unique mangrove ecosystem.
Its objective is to create the conditions in which a tiger population can establish, breed and ultimately become viable and self-sustaining,” the Union Environment Ministry said.
