Forest teams during the capture operation on Tuesday
We are also keeping a close watch on the movement of male tigers from the Bhutan-Assam forests, as recorded earlier in 2021, 2023 and 2026,” a forest official said. On average, she covered 5 km a day. After making a kill, particularly of domestic pigs, her movement was even more restricted, with the animal generally remaining within a radius of around 2-2.5 km of the kill site.
Sources said a male tiger is likely to be brought from Bihar’s Valmiki by late Nov or early Dec, subject to approval from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). A senior Bihar forest department official, however, said they were yet to receive any communication from concerned authorities regarding the next phase of the translocation programme. “The tigress will stay in the enclosure for the time being,” Bengal forest minister Manoj Kumar Oraon said. The operation to capture the tigress in the Gilaguri village area of Assam proved challenging, with the tracking teams having to contend with “increasingly impatient locals”. Villagers would burst crackers whenever the teams approached an area where the tigress was suspected to be present, apparently hoping to drive the animal away, sources said. Officials also said the tigress did not make particularly long movements during her stay in Raimona.
Kolkata: With the Buxa tigress brought back to the north Bengal tiger reserve, focus now shifts to the next phase of the state’s first tiger reintroduction project. “The tigress is more likely to settle in Buxa if a male is present. Keeping the gathering crowd under control became an additional challenge for the teams on Tuesday afternoon.