Stripes with tunnelling skills: Dooars Rani flees towards Assam again

West Bengal's tiger relocation programme has suffered another setback after Dooars Rani, a three-year-old tigress brought back from Assam last week, escaped from a special acclimatisation enclosure inside Buxa Tiger Reserve for the second time.

The tigress escaped from the 2.2-hectare enclosure on Sunday afternoon, November 9 by digging a tunnel beneath the concrete foundation of the perimeter fence, forest department officials said.

According to officials, the fence had a concrete foundation measuring around two feet in thickness and four feet in depth. However, Doars Rani managed to dig underneath it and make her way out. Her absence was noticed at around 2 pm.

The tigress's radio collar is still functional, and forest officials are using its signals to track her movements. Sources said she had crossed the Bala river and was heading towards Assam. Her last known location was near the 27-mile forest village inside Buxa Tiger Reserve.

Around 60 forest guards, three elephants and senior forest officials have been deployed to trace the animal. Tracking her has proved challenging as she sometimes moves through areas with poor radio signal reception inside the forest.

This is the second time Doars Rani has strayed from Buxa since being brought from Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve under West Bengal's first tiger relocation programme.

On October 24, the tigress ventured into Assam, travelling more than 100 km from Buxa. After nearly 10 days, a joint operation by the forest departments of West Bengal and Assam tracked her down and tranquilised her at Gilaguri in the Dotma area of Assam's Kokrajhar district on November 3.

She was subsequently brought back to Buxa and placed inside the acclimatisation enclosure.

Her repeated escapes have raised fresh questions about the challenges of tiger relocation and the suitability of the acclimatisation arrangements at Buxa Tiger Reserve.