You were associated with the Panna tiger reintroduction programme. What are the biggest lessons that you believe are applicable to Buxa?It is important to create inviolate space to recover and sustain tigers. Panna had lost tigers largely due to poaching, whereas in Buxa, the tiger population was also lost to poaching of prey and habitat destruction. The lesson from Panna was that even with the loss, if the habitat condition, including prey, is stable, tiger recovery can be quicker.Panna had almost lost its tiger population before reintroduction. Buxa, in contrast, has occasional tiger presence and is connected to tiger-bearing landscapes in Assam and Bhutan. Does that make Buxa a different kind of reintroduction challenge?A few tigers were still present in Panna in 2008, and the presence of one male was recorded till Feb 2009. The original effort was to augment the area with two females. However, since the Panna male was not recorded subsequently, we had to bring a male too, and eventually, it became a full-fledged recovery programme. It is true that Buxa has connectivity with Bhutan and Assam, but for a connected landscape to become ecologically meaningful and practically helpful, the tiger population has to grow substantially and connectivity bottlenecks with Bhutan and Assam must be removed.How ready, in your assessment, is Buxa today to receive the first tiger? Is there any ecological or management concern that you think still needs to be addressed or may be addressed in the long run?It is ready to kickstart conservation action with a pilot release. With the efforts made in Buxa for the last six to seven years, certain critical improvements have been achieved by securing habitats and ensuring stable prey populations. But the prey population is still low and requires substantial improvement to sustain a viable population. Major impediments continue to be the presence of villages inside the reserve with significant resource use. If villages such as Jayanti and nearby residents can spare the space for tigers, there is every chance that tiger recovery can be accelerated. Despite being one of the old tiger reserves, management needs further strengthening through continuous engagement with people and executing transboundary collaboration. In the long run, tiger management should focus on a landscape approach, taking into account the entire north Bengal landscape as a management unit.What would you consider the biggest challenge in the first six to 12 months after a tiger is released?The tiger, though a highly adaptable species, has a tendency to explore and settles only when there is a sense of security. Since Buxa has relatively linear habitats around the Himalayas and a sharp southern edge bordering human habitations, there is a possibility that released tigers will explore a large area. Since the area lacks mobile network support and has dense vegetation, continuous monitoring will be challenging.With Buxa’s connectivity, could natural immigration eventually become more important than repeated translocation?Yes, this is what we expect and hope. Initial tiger translocation may establish a few resident tigers, whereas the long-term persistence in Buxa depends on the connectivity and natural movement of the tiger from adjoining populations.Two villages have already been relocated. Relocation of the most important one, Jayanti, is underway. Some in the upper reaches, in the Buxa Fort zone, are still there. How important is the relocation of villages for the long-term success of the programme?It is important to create a secure place for tigers. Jayanti is the biggest bottleneck for tiger presence in multiple ways. So, relocating the village will significantly reduce anthropogenic disturbance in the heart of Buxa. If more villages could be relocated, Buxa has the potential to become one of the important tiger populations in the region.Panna eventually developed a self-sustaining tiger population after reintroduction. What would be the equivalent benchmark for declaring Buxa’s programme a success — not merely the survival of the released animals?Achieving a self-sustaining population is important. Current habitat conditions and prey density in Buxa are not sufficient to state anything like this. Therefore, expanding inviolate space and prey recovery will be important to ensure a self-sustaining population. Otherwise, it will remain a low-density tiger area and will have to be sustained by dispersing tigers.What lessons from Panna’s challenges should Buxa be particularly careful of?Panna and Buxa have habitat connectivity. In Panna, human habitations were on the northern and southern borders, whereas in Buxa, human habitation is only in the southern area; the northern region borders Bhutan. Hence, if a released tiger ranges widely, which is expected, it will pose additional challenges in Buxa because of the complex terrain and international jurisdiction. In Panna, people’s perception was mostly in favour of tiger recovery, and this may not be the case in Buxa. More care is required to address this aspect.Once the first tigress is brought, how long will it be kept in its soft-release enclosure?A soft-release enclosure is more of a transit arrangement and not meant for holding the tiger for a longer period like a typical soft-release wherein the large facility is used for making the tiger acclimatise to local conditions and gain natural traits before being let free in the wild. This is typically done when captive-bred animals are considered for release in the wild. This is wild-to-wild translocation, and depending on the animals’ health, they can be kept for three days to two weeks. The enclosure is one hectare and is good enough for current requirements.Can you share some details on the release arrangements?Tiger translocation is not just a local conservation action but has a larger ecological and social context regarding how society chooses to live and grow. So, it is expected that the management and people will own the programme, assume leadership, and take responsibility for demonstrating such conservation outcomes. In my view, all agencies/organisations connected to this programme are fully on board, and it is now to be seen and appreciated as to how the local leadership takes advantage and strides towards accomplishing the intended purpose.
