Kolkata/Jalpaiguri: After around nine days of efforts hampered by rain, foresters on Tuesday evening captured a three-year-old tigress at Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve for Buxa’s tiger reintroduction project.The tigress, shortlisted from a list of 12 big cats, was captured around 5.30pm after foresters got a favourable window to dart the animal.“It’s a three-year-old tigress and perfectly healthy. It has already been radio-collared,” Bengal forest minister Manoj Kumar Oraon said.CM Suvendu Adhikari, Union forest minister Bhupender Yadav and Oraon will attend the tiger-release event on Oct 2.The tigress is expected to be airlifted to north Bengal on Tuesday night, sources said. It will first be transported by road from Valmiki to Gorakhpur airbase, from where it will be flown to Hasimara airbase. From there, it will be taken to Buxa in an animal ambulance. The entire journey is expected to take five to six hours. “If the airlift can’t be initiated on Tuesday night, the tigress will be brought on Wednesday morning,” Oraon said.Sources said an An-32 military transport aircraft will be used for the airlift. The aircraft has been stationed at Gorakhpur airbase for the past 48 hours, they said.International Big Cat Alliance director and former Bengal head of forest force Soumitra Dasgupta, who is closely monitoring the project and is a member of the NTCA expert panel overseeing the reintroduction, said the operation involved coordination between multiple agencies. “There has been perfect coordination between the Union forest and defence ministries and both Bihar and Bengal govts,” Dasgupta said.On Monday, buffalo baits were placed at strategic locations to draw the tigress out. The tigress made a kill at one of the sites and returned several times to feed during the day. This provided foresters with an opportunity to position teams and prepare for the darting operation. “We finally got a favourable window to dart it around 5.30pm,” a source said.
