Tigress relocated to West Bengal’s Buxa tiger reserve moves into Assam’s Raimona National Park

A tigress brought from Bihar and released into West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve earlier this month has crossed into Assam’s Raimona National Park within three weeks, with forest officials monitoring its movement through a radio collar fitted on the animal.

The approximately three-year-old Royal Bengal tigress crossed the Sankosh river on Friday and entered the Raimona forest area in Assam, a senior forest official told PTI on Monday.

The tigress was released into Buxa Tiger Reserve on October 2 in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav as part of efforts to re-establish a resident tiger population in the reserve.

West Bengal Forest Minister Manoj Oraon said the tigress could be exploring a wider territory in search of a suitable habitat and marking its territory rather than restricting its movement to Buxa.

“The tigress has moved towards Assam through a specific corridor. It is using the corridor to mark its own territory,” Oraon told PTI.

He said the animal’s movement appeared to be part of its natural territorial behaviour and that officials were monitoring whether it would eventually settle in Raimona National Park.

“There is no immediate plan to bring it back with the help of tranquillizers. We are allowing it to settle down,” the minister said.

The tigress’s movements are being tracked through signals from its radio collar. Oraon also clarified that there was no plan to tranquilise the animal and transport it back to Buxa at this stage.

The development has brought renewed attention to the ecological links between Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal and Raimona National Park in western Assam, which form part of a forested landscape extending across state and international boundaries.

Buxa’s efforts to revive its tiger population

Buxa Tiger Reserve had remained without a confirmed resident tiger population for nearly a decade before a tiger was spotted in 2021. One or two further sightings were reported in subsequent years, including in January 2026, but the reserve had yet to establish a stable resident population.

The West Bengal Forest Department subsequently initiated efforts to re-establish a permanent tiger population in Buxa. The tigress was brought from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve and released into the forest on October 2.

Its movement into Raimona has now opened up the possibility of the animal exploring and potentially settling in the adjoining forest landscape.

For now, forest officials are allowing the tigress to move naturally while tracking its location through radio-collar signals. Its movements will help determine whether it remains in Assam or returns to the Buxa forest area.