‘Crackers will disturb Doars Rani’: Bengal to ‘cage’ Buxa tigress that entered Assam

The West Bengal Government on Saturday announced that it plans to capture the tigress that strayed into Assam last week, travelling 100 km from Buxa Tiger Reserve, and bring it back. The tigress, Doars Rani, brought from Bihar and released into Buxa on October 2 as part of Bengal's first relocation programme, has already killed three domesticated pigs and four piglets after it entered Raimona National Park in Assam.

The tigress was located first near Hatigarh village and then near Narayanpur village. Forest Minister Manoj Oraon visited Assam on Saturday and held a meeting with forest department officials of both Bengal and Assam. The minister said that the Assam government would write to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for permission to cage it.

“Had the tigress been in Raimona forest, we would have let it be. But since it is located near human habitat and has already killed domesticated animals, we have decided to capture and cage it. Kali Puja and Diwali are coming, and people will burst crackers.

This will disturb the tigress. That is why we plan to capture it,” Oraon told reporters in Assam. The minister said they expect to get the permission from NTCA on Saturday. “We have already written to the Assam government.

I have spoken to the chief minister (Suvendu Adhikari) too. Our teams are ready. We will start operations to capture and cage the tiger from tomorrow,” Oraon said. According to sources, signals from the radio collar of the tigress failed on Thursday, following which search teams of the Bengal and Assam forest departments were pressed into action.

But on Friday, her position was located. Oraon said that the borders of Bengal, Assam, and Bhutan are man-made, which the animal does not know. "The animal's basic instinct, after release, is to explore the area and then settle down; like what happened in the case of tigress Zeenat, which travelled from Simlipal to Jharkhand and then Bengal.

It was captured in Bengal,” he said. “The tigress is safe now, and we know its location. It has covered around 100 km and even crossed a national highway. We are calling it Doars Rani,” Oraon added. According to sources, teams from Bengal and Assam are placed in the area where the tigress is presently located.

Teams equipped with trap door cages and tranquiliser guns are waiting for a go-ahead for the mission. In December 2024, tigress Zeenat, hailing from Simlipal in Odisha, travelled 300 km, crossed Jharkhand and entered Bengal.

It was later tranquilised and caged in Bankura. According to sources in Assam's Raimona National Park, the tigress is presently located at Narayanpur village in Gossaingaon sub-division in Kokrajhar district. After entering Assam seven days ago, the tigress was located first near Hatigarh village and then Narayanpur village.

It has already killed three domesticated pigs and four piglets. Tigress Doars Rani aka T-138’s introduction in Buxa Tiger Reserve, a protected forest and national park spanning approximately 760 square km in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district, was part of a larger reintroduction plan.

After being tranquilised and caged in Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, the tigress was flown in on a military aircraft to Hasimara Air Force Station in Alipurduar early on September 30. It was then taken to the Rajabhatkhawa forest area under Buxa Tiger Reserve.

On October 2, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari released the tigress into the wild from its 2.2-hectare soft enclosure. The plan, Forest Minister Oraon had said then, was to first establish one tiger unit — one tiger and two tigresses.

To ensure an undisturbed habitat and expand the area’s prey base, the forest department had earlier relocated 242 households from core villages such as Bhutia Basti and Gangutia Basti. Ravik Bhattacharya is a highly experienced and award-winning journalist currently serving as the Chi...

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