Tiger relocation to Bengal's Buxa Reserve from Assam delayed as villages remains inside core forest

Kolkata, Dec 22 (PTI) The planned introduction of big cats from Assam to Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal will not take place immediately, as a few villages still remain inside the core forest area, a senior official said on Monday.

To create a safer and undisturbed habitat for tigers, the forest department and authorities have been relocating villages from inside the core forest area to lands outside the reserve, the forest official told PTI, adding that work has been progressing tiding over some of the teething problems.

He said families from Bhutiabasti have already been moved to a resettlement area called Bono Chhaya near Bhatpara Tea Garden in Kalchini, while Gangutia/Gangutiabasti families were also relocated around the same time.

"Plans to relocate the larger Jayanti village and other contiguous areas are ongoing in accordance with National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines," he said, adding that plan was conceived at least eight years ago.

A senior NTCA official said, "Relocating people from core tiger habitats is a common conservation strategy to reduce human-tiger conflict and help big cats thrive in their natural range. Once all settlements are shifted outside the periphery and beyond the buffer zone, sufficient space will be available for tigers without human disturbance." While no tigers were sighted in the reserve during the winter of 2024-25, the last confirmed camera trap capture on December 31, 2023, recorded a big cat in the dense forest, the state forest official said.

"We don’t know whether this was a resident tiger, but it could have been a non-resident moving along the Bhutan-Buxa-Manas corridor," the state official said.

The state official said there were plans to introduce at least 12 tigers from reserves in Assam such as Manas and Kaziranga as part of an augmentation programme to have a viable big cat population in Buxa.

To a question, the senior state forest official said "a conscious decision has been taken not to augment tigers in the Buxa from the Sunderbans in West Bengal as the habitat is totally different with a different mangrove system." The Sunderbans currently host around 105 tigers, according to official estimates based on camera traps and pug marks. PTI SUS MNB