Why it is in the news
On 2 October 2026, a three-year-old tigress, T138, translocated from Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve, was released into a soft-release enclosure in Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. It is the first step of a phased programme to rebuild a breeding, self-sustaining tiger population in a reserve that has lacked resident tigers for years.
The exam angle
Issue: Can active translocation recreate self-sustaining tiger populations in degraded, people-dense reserves, or does it only move the problem from one landscape to another?