Lakhimpur Kheri, April 3 -- While working to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in the Dudhwa buffer zone, forest officials are now faced with a big headache: where to release the big cats after capturing them?

According to H Rajamohan, field director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), DTR is now beyond its capacity to accommodate the rescued big cats while the alternate options to rehabilitate them in other reserve forests or zoos also face a similar space crunch.

So, where do big cats go after being rescued?

Field director, DTR, H Rajamohan said, "DTR has 135 big cats as per last tiger estimation of 2022 and seven tigers and 49 leopards were rescued and rehabilitated to safe core areas in 2023-24."

He added that two tigers and 23 leopards i...