Examine the ecological, social and administrative challenges in re-establishing tigers in reserves where they have gone locally extinct.

On 2 October 2026, tigress T138 was moved from Valmiki (Bihar) to Buxa Tiger Reserve (West Bengal). Buxa had not recorded tigers consistently for nearly three decades [1]. Bringing tigers back depends on removing the causes that wiped them out, and moving animals is only the first step.

Ecological challenges

• Weak prey base: NTCA blamed Buxa's low tiger numbers on human pressure and a small prey population [3]. Releasing 690 chital can only help if the grasslands that feed them are kept healthy [3].
• Founder population: A single tigress cannot breed. A viable population needs males and phased releases [1]. Panna and Sariska each received five tigers, but only Panna's tigresses bred quickly. This shows that conditions inside the reserve decide the outcome [6].
• Limited space: Buxa covers just 757.90 sq km [2], so tigers looking for their own territory may stray into farms and settlements.
• Adaptation: Released tigers need a soft-release enclosure and radio-collar monitoring [1].

Social challenges

• Human density: Buxa has 46 fringe villages, 37 forest villages and 34 tea gardens in and around it [3]. Livestock kills can turn local people against the tigers.
• Relocation versus rights: The Forest Rights Act, 2006 protects forest-dwellers' claims to land and forest produce, and forced eviction breeds hostility. Panna shows a better path: 13 of 16 core villages relocated voluntarily [5].
• Livelihood dependence: Grazing, fuelwood and tea-garden work tie local incomes to the forest.

Administrative challenges

• Unaddressed root causes: Poaching wiped out Sariska's tigers. Even after reintroduction, highways, villages and livestock remained in its core area [4]. Fixing this needs the Forest, Transport and Revenue departments to work together.
• Multi-level coordination: The Buxa transfer needed Bihar, West Bengal and the Union Environment Ministry (MoEFCC) to act together [1].
• Protection capacity: The Tiger Task Force report Joining the Dots (2005), written after the Sariska loss, found that weak protection systems and keeping local people out of conservation were the real failures [7].
• Long monitoring horizon: Success means cubs born in the wild, so tracking must continue for years [1].

Reintroduction succeeds only when habitat, people and institutions are restored together. Steps that would help:

• assess the prey base before each release
• offer generous, voluntary relocation packages
• compensate villagers for conflict losses
• set public breeding targets

Under Project Tiger and the Task Force's people-centred approach, Buxa can become a breeding population. That would advance Article 48A and SDG 15 (life on land).