Tigress moved to Buxa crosses the Sankosh into Assam's Raimona National Park
A three-year-old tigress moved from Bihar to West Bengal's Buxa Tiger Reserve on 2 October has crossed the Sankosh river into Assam's Raimona National Park. Forest teams of both States and the National Tiger Conservation Authority are tracking her by radio collar. West Bengal's Forest Minister said there was no plan yet to tranquillise her and bring her back.
Syllabus: Prelims · Geography; Prelims · Environment & Ecology; GS3 · Environment & Conservation
Why this matters for UPSC
GS3 environment: tiger re-introduction, tiger reserves and wildlife corridors. Prelims can ask the NTCA protocol and where Buxa, Raimona and Manas lie; Mains, translocation versus connectivity.
Why it matters
A young tigress released into an empty reserve has to find prey, cover and a home range of her own. If the forest she needs runs across a river and a State line, the animal will follow it, and the people living along that route meet a tiger for the first time in years. That makes the success of the move depend on two State forest departments and a central authority acting as one, and on villages and tea gardens accepting the animal. If she settles and breeds, the north Bengal and western Assam forests could hold tigers again; if she is pushed back or killed, the effort to restore Buxa starts over.
Prelims pointers
- The NTCA's re-introduction protocol says a re-introduction site should hold no remnant tigers, while a reinforcement site may hold a few.
- The protocol prefers sub-adult tigresses of two to three years for re-introduction, to spare the donor population's breeding animals.
- Buxa Tiger Reserve covers 760.87 sq km: a core or critical tiger habitat of 390.58 sq km and a buffer of 370.29 sq km.
- The Sankosh separates Manas Tiger Reserve from Buxa on the west; the Manas river and its tributaries separate it from Bhutan's Royal Manas National Park.
- Manas is a Natural World Heritage Site, a Tiger Reserve, an Elephant Reserve, a Biosphere Reserve and an Important Bird Area.
- Raimona National Park is administered by the Kachugaon Forest Division, with the BTR government as its head administration.
- The protocol prefers founder tigers from wild stock, turning to captive stock only when suitable wild stock is not available.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the National Tiger Conservation Authority's protocol for tiger re-introduction, consider the following statements:
1. Where a release site has been badly degraded by human activity, the tigers are to be released first and the habitat restored afterwards.
2. Tigers from wild stock are preferred, with captive stock considered only when suitable wild stock is not available.
3. In the absence of genetic data, the preferred founder population is the nearest one that likely had habitat connectivity with the release area in the past.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only. The protocol wants wild, closely related founders and a restored habitat before any release.
Statement 1: incorrect. Where human activity has badly degraded the release site, a habitat restoration programme, or one to resettle people, is to begin before the re-introduction is carried out.
Statement 2: correct. The protocol gives preference to tigers from wild stock and turns to captive stock only when appropriate wild stock is not available.
Statement 3: correct. Without genetic data, tigers from the nearest population that likely shared habitat connectivity with the release area in the past are the preferred founders.
Eliminate: Statement 1 reverses the order of restoration and release. Out: (a), (c), (d).
Trap: Reversed direction. Restoration and release are both in the protocol, and the statement swaps which comes first.
Remember: Restore the habitat first; prefer wild founders from a nearby, once-connected population.
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