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Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav released a three year old tigress, T138, into a specially built enclosure in West Bengal's Buxa Tiger Reserve on 2 October 2026, launching the state's first tiger reintroduction programme in the presence of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. The tigress was brought from Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve under a soft release process that keeps her in a 2.3 hectare enclosure to acclimatise before she is freed into the wider reserve, and the state plans to introduce two to three more tigers over the next two months. Buxa's resident tiger population had disappeared by the late 1990s, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority's decision to attempt reintroduction follows about eight years of preparatory study, even as wildlife scientists have questioned whether the reserve's prey base and habitat, which still has villages inside its core area, are ready.