{"id":17737,"date":"2026-06-27T16:50:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=17737"},"modified":"2026-06-27T17:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:38:15","slug":"btr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/btr\/","title":{"rendered":"Buxa Tiger Reserve, Location, Physiography, Drainage, Biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Buxa Tiger Reserve is a strategically important protected area in the Dooars region of West Bengal that forms a critical transboundary ecological landscape with Bhutan and Assam in the Eastern Himalayan foothills.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Buxa Tiger Reserve Location<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Buxa Tiger Reserve<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is one of the most important protected areas of <\/span><b>North Bengal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the second major tiger reserve in the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Buxa Tiger Reserve is <\/span><b>located in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the foothills of the <\/span><b>Eastern Himalayas.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It lies within the <\/span><b>Indo-Malayan biodiversity region<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is known for high species richness and ecological sensitivity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reserve was <\/span><b>notified under Project Tiger in 1983 as the 15th <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/tiger-reserves-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">tiger reserve in India<\/a>.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It occupies a strategic transboundary position by sharing its northern boundary with Bhutan and connecting to Assam through forest corridors.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Buxa Tiger Reserve Physiography and Drainage<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>elevation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of Buxa Tiger Reserve ranges from about 60 metres in the plains to nearly 1750 metres in the Himalayan foothills.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It includes Terai, Bhabar and sub-Himalayan ecosystems within a single protected landscape.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reserve is drained by rivers such as <\/span><b>Raidak, Sankosh and Jayanti<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which originate in Bhutan. These rivers carry heavy sediment loads, frequently causing flooding and habitat alteration.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Buxa Tiger Reserve Biodiversity\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reserve supports more than 1,000 plant species, including about 450 tree species, 400 herb species, 250 shrub species, and over 150 orchid species<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Buxa Tiger Reserve is covered mainly by <\/span><b>moist tropical forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with very high species diversity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The forest is dominated by <\/span><b>Sal, Champa, Gamar and Simul trees.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It supports diverse wildlife including <\/span><b>elephants, gaur, sambar, chital, wild boar, leopards, clouded leopards and dhole.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>avifauna<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> includes hornbills, vultures and endangered species such as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bengal-florican\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Bengal florican<\/strong><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tiger population in Buxa Tiger Reserve had almost disappeared after 1998 and remained absent for over two decades.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Camera trap records in 2021 and 2023 confirmed the return of a male tiger to the landscape. In January 2026, another adult male tiger was camera-trapped in the West Rajabhatkhawa Range, confirming continued dispersal. This indicates active connectivity through the India\u2013Bhutan\u2013Assam corridor system.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Asian elephant remains a key corridor flagship species, facilitating large-scale migration across international boundaries.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Ecological Corridors and Connectivity<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Buxa Tiger Reserve is connected through multiple ecological corridors ensuring landscape continuity.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Buxa-Chilapata Corridor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> links it with Jaldapara and supports elephant movement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Buxa-Titi Corridor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> maintains connectivity through forest patches and tea garden matrices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Buxa-Ripu Corridor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> connects it to Assam\u2019s forest divisions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These corridors collectively enable genetic flow across India, Bhutan and Assam landscapes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Cultural and Historical Significance<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Buxa Fort<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was used by the British as a detention centre during India\u2019s freedom struggle. The <\/span><b>Mahakaleshwar temple<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an important religious site, and several indigenous communities such as Rava, Dukpa, and Nepali groups live in the surrounding areas.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read about Buxa Tiger Reserve, its location in West Bengal, rich biodiversity, river system, tiger population, ecological corridors, and conservation importance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":110225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[4121],"class_list":{"0":"post-17737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-buxa-tiger-reserve","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17737"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110227,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17737\/revisions\/110227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}