Forest Dept to bring 12 royal Bengal tigers to Buxa Tiger Reserve
Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Alipurduar district is to get 12 royal Bengal tigers, courtesy the State Forest Department. The tigers will be brought from the forest reserves in Assam, which have similar flora and fauna as the Buxa forest.
Buxa is also home to smaller cats such as common clouded leopards, jungle cats and fishing cats. The list of major herbivores includes elephant, Indian gaur, chital, sambar, barking deer and hog deer.
The Forest Department has also decided to bring in least 50 sambars and a good number of bisons from Jaldapara National Park to BTR to boost the food chain ahead of the introduction of the big cats. In any forest where tigers are present in India, they are at the top of the food chain.
The tiger reserve has an area of about 757.9 square kilometres (sq km), of which 390 sq km lies in the core area and 367 sq km in the buffer zone.
