‘Buxa ready for pilot tiger release, but prey recovery, village relocation key to long-term success’
The road to restoring tigers in north Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve is loaded with challenges. What will it take to make tiger reintroduction viable, ecologically sound and sustainable in the long term? To understand the science, landscape-level considerations and challenges ahead, TOI’s Krishnendu Mukherjee speaks to Ramesh Krishnamurthy, senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India, who is providing scientific support to the Buxa tiger reintroduction project. Krishnamurthy had earlier led a team of professionals in supporting tiger recovery in other tiger reserves, including Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve, and developed the Integrated Landscape Management Plan for the Greater Panna Landscape in central India.
