Alipurduar: The tiger population in Assam’s Manas National Park is thriving, while efforts have been made to create a suitable habitat for tigers in Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), which is contiguous to Manas. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) mentioned in a tweet on April 26 that tigers from Manas are migrating to the forests of Buxa. The tweet stated: “Connecting Tigers...efforts of @manasnptr and @assamforest in securing the core area of Manas over the last couple of years have borne fruit. We now have evidence of increasing tiger presence at Manas dispersing to Buxa Tiger Reserve, validating Manas as a credible source population.”
While the national tiger census statistics still show no resident tigers in BTR, photographic evidence from 2017 to 2024 confirms the presence of Royal Bengal tigers in the reserve. The source of these tigers was previously unknown, but recent camera trap images indicate that at least one tiger spotted in BTR had migrated from Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam. Apurba Sen, the field director of BTR, confirmed this, stating: “Each tiger has a unique stripe pattern and after sending the tiger’s picture to the Wildlife Institute of India for analysis, we received confirmation that it had originated from Manas.
This underscores our efforts in habitat management, protection and increasing prey base, as tigers have repeatedly migrated to Buxa from neighbouring forests in recent years.” Buxa, designated as a Tiger Reserve in 1983, had struggled to establish itself as a tiger habitat, with a history of zero tiger sightings in its jungles. However, from 2017 to 2024, there has been a noticeable change, with evidence of tiger presence during certain months of each year. The project proposal submitted in early 2017 for the introduction of tigers into BTR had foresters in Bengal searching for a source population in Assam. The natural migration of tigers is preferred over translocation and seven years after the proposal submission, the excitement among foresters was palpable as a tiger from Assam’s forest ventured into Buxa.