'Near Human Habitat': Bengal Minister In Assam As Teams Move To Capture Tigress, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• A tigress named Doars Rani (T-138), translocated to Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal, strayed approximately 100 km into Raimona National Park in Assam.
• The tigress, part of Bengal's first tiger relocation program, was brought from Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar and released on October 2.
• After entering Assam, Doars Rani killed three domesticated pigs and four piglets near human habitation in Narayanpur village, Kokrajhar district.
• West Bengal Forest Minister Manoj Oraon visited Assam to coordinate with forest officials for the tigress's capture.
• Both states are seeking permission from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to capture and cage the tigress due to human-wildlife conflict concerns and upcoming festivals.

Detailed Insights:

• The Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal, declared in 1983, is part of a crucial transboundary landscape connected to forests in Bhutan and Assam.
• The reintroduction program aims to establish a viable, self-sustaining tiger population in Buxa, which had experienced a prolonged absence of resident tigers due to habitat degradation and prey scarcity.
• Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar was chosen as the source due to its ecological similarities with Buxa, both being part of the Terai Arc Landscape.
• Valmiki Tiger Reserve has shown significant success in tiger conservation, with its population increasing from 31 in 2018 to 54 in 2022.
• Raimona National Park, declared in 2021, is located in Assam's Kokrajhar district and forms a vital transboundary conservation corridor with Bhutan's Royal Manas National Park.
• The NTCA provides guidelines for tiger reintroduction, emphasizing scientific methods, prey base assessment, and soft release protocols, often involving radio-collaring for monitoring.
• The incident highlights challenges in tiger translocation programs, including the natural dispersal behavior of tigers and potential human-wildlife conflict when animals move near human settlements.
• A similar incident involved tigress Zeenat, which travelled nearly 300 km from Similipal Tiger Reserve (Odisha) across Jharkhand and into West Bengal before being captured in December 2024.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Tiger Relocation Programme: A conservation strategy to re-establish or augment tiger populations in suitable habitats where they are locally extinct or have low numbers.
• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA): A statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, responsible for tiger conservation in India.
• Human-Wildlife Conflict: Negative interactions between people and wild animals that result in harm to human lives, livelihoods, property, or wildlife populations.
• Radio-collaring: The practice of fitting wild animals with collars containing radio transmitters to track their movements and monitor their behavior.