A three-year-old tigress was released into Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal, the first step in a plan to rebuild a viable tiger population there.

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• A three-year-old tigress was released into Buxa Tiger Reserve on 2 October 2026.
• The release is the first step in a phased plan to build a viable, self-sustaining tiger population in the reserve.
• Tiger presence in Buxa had dwindled over the years.
• Buxa lies in Alipurduar district of northern West Bengal, in the Terai–Duars landscape along the Bhutan border.
• It was declared a tiger reserve in 1983, and the historic Buxa Fort inside it was used to detain freedom fighters.
• Project Tiger began in 1973, and India has 58 tiger reserves.
• IUCN guidelines (2013) define reintroduction as returning a species to part of its native range where it has disappeared.
• Project Cheetah began at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in September 2022, using African cheetahs rather than the extinct Asiatic subspecies.
• Because of that, some ecologists classify the cheetah programme as a conservation introduction rather than a true reintroduction.
• India spends roughly ₹3,500 crore a year on conservation against an estimated need of ₹9,500 to ₹10,000 crore.
• Protected areas cover only about 5% of India's land and average roughly 200 square kilometres.

Tags: BuxaTigerReserve, TigerReintroduction, ProjectTiger