Senior forest officials said the presence of villages within the core zone remains the main hurdle in creating conditions suitable for sustaining a tiger population. A senior NTCA official said, “Relocating people from core tiger habitats is a common conservation strategy to reduce human-tiger conflict and help big cats thrive in their natural range. The last confirmed camera trap image dates back to December 31, 2023, when a big cat was captured moving through dense forest. “We don’t know whether this was a resident tiger, but it could have been a non-resident moving along the Bhutan-Buxa-Manas corridor,” a state forest official said. Despite the uncertainty, the state government has drawn up plans to rebuild a viable tiger population in the reserve.

Source: The Telegraph December 22, 2025 15:11 UTC