Pariksha SaathiFirst Tigress Reintroduced in Buxa Tiger Reserve Under Tiger Reintroduction Programme
India's Wildlife Week 2026 opened on 2 October with the release of a tigress, T138, into West Bengal's Buxa Tiger Reserve, the first step in a phased Tiger Reintroduction Programme. The animal was translocated from Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve after ecological and veterinary assessments, and Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari were present for the release. Buxa was declared a tiger reserve in 1983 and is ecologically connected to forests in Assam and Bhutan, but habitat degradation, changing land use and a dwindling prey base had left it without a stable resident tiger population for years. Since 2018, a Tiger Augmentation and Recovery Project led by the West Bengal government with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India has prepared the ground, releasing more than 800 chital to rebuild prey and restoring about 380 hectares of grassland. The tigress will be tracked through telemetry, camera traps and field monitoring, and any further releases will depend on habitat, prey and population-viability assessments.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
Project Tiger was launched in April 1973. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body constituted under Section 38L of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, and is chaired by the Union Minister in charge of Environment and Forests. Under Section 38V(1) of the same Act, a tiger reserve is notified by the State Government on the recommendation of the NTCA.
Reference: National Tiger Conservation Authority, About Us
Check yourself: who issues the notification declaring an area a tiger reserve, the NTCA or the State Government?
The State Government. The NTCA recommends; the State notifies (Section 38V(1), Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972).
Revision task: separate the roles in this item: the State government (runs the recovery project), the NTCA (statutory national authority) and the Wildlife Institute of India (scientific support).
Test yourself
Wildlife Week 2026 opened with the release of tigress T138 under a phased Tiger Reintroduction Programme. At which tiger reserve was she released?
Show the answer
Answer: Buxa Tiger Reserve
T138, translocated from Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve, was released at West Bengal's Buxa Tiger Reserve (declared a tiger reserve in 1983), which had lacked a stable resident tiger population for years.
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