Alipurduar, July 6 -- The West Bengal Forest Department will relocate a tigress to Buxa Tiger Reserve on October 2, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti, marking the first phase of its tiger reintroduction programme. Ahead of the translocation, authorities are strengthening surveillance and communication infrastructure to ensure the animal's safety and enable round-the-clock monitoring.
Preparations were reviewed at a high-level meeting held on Monday at the Rajabhatkhawa Interpretation Centre, attended by Forest Minister Manoj Kumar Oraon and senior forest officials. The meeting focused on finalising arrangements for the tigress's relocation and the enhanced protection measures.
As part of the project, Buxa Tiger Reserve authorities will install eight state-of-the-art radio telecommunication towers across the reserve's core area to improve communication in one of the state's most challenging forest landscapes. The upgraded network will support continuous monitoring of the tigress while ensuring reliable communication among field staff. The 760 sq km reserve faces severe communication challenges, with large parts of its core area lacking mobile network coverage. To overcome this, the Forest Department is establishing a dedicated radio communication network before relocating the tigress, which is expected to be brought from a neighbouring state, most likely Assam or Bihar.
The tigress will be fitted with a radio collar, allowing forest officials to track its movements in real time. Three specialised monitoring teams will remain deployed inside the forest, with movement data transmitted to a central control room for 24-hour surveillance. Officials said the new radio towers will be crucial for uninterrupted communication and rapid response.
A senior forest official said: "Our responsibility does not end with releasing a Royal Bengal tiger into the forest. The real challenge begins thereafter. Since mobile connectivity is almost non-existent in Buxa's core area, a robust radio communication network is our most dependable means of monitoring the animal."
The Forest Department expects the new towers to eliminate communication shadow zones within the reserve while strengthening anti-poaching operations, wildfire response, wildlife tracking and emergency rescue missions.
Forest Minister Manoj Kumar Oraon said: "The reintroduction of the Royal Bengal tiger in Buxa is not merely an animal translocation project; it is a long-term conservation programme. Along with bringing the tiger, we are modernising surveillance and communication systems to ensure its protection."
He added that the government is also making arrangements to relocate residents from forest villages before the tiger's release and expressed confidence that Buxa could replicate the successful tiger revival achieved in Sariska through scientific reintroduction.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.