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25 Jul 2026ENVIRONMENT3 questions

A Reserve Without Its Predator: Why Buxa Is Getting Tigers From Assam, Not the Sundarbans

UPSC-standard MCQs with explanations, trap analysis, and approach guide. Answer after the test — not before.

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Article summary

The West Bengal Forest Department, with the National Tiger Conservation Authority, plans to reintroduce tigers into the Buxa Tiger Reserve in the Alipurduar district of north Bengal, with a target date announced for later in 2026. Buxa, notified a tiger reserve in the 1980s, had effectively lost its resident tiger population, and camera traps recorded only transient animals straying from the forests of Bhutan or Assam over recent years. Officials have indicated that the source tigers will come from the similar terai and hill landscapes of Assam, where reserves such as Kaziranga and Orang hold surplus animals, rather than from the Sundarban delta, whose mangrove-adapted tigers are behaviourally and ecologically distinct. The reintroduction will follow NTCA protocols under Project Tiger, which launched in 1973, and depends on prey availability, habitat restoration and reduction of human pressure inside the reserve.

What this tests

recallTests whether you read the article and retained key facts.
1Q
applicationTests whether you can apply the concept to a new scenario.
1Q
analysisTests whether you can reason across multiple related facts.
1Q

Sample questions — answers revealed after test

ENVIRONMENTRecallEasy

Q1. In conservation biology, what distinguishes reintroduction from supplementation?

AReintroduction reinforces an existing declining population, while supplementation releases a species into an area where it has disappeared.
BReintroduction releases a species into an area from which it has disappeared, while supplementation reinforces an existing but declining population.
CBoth terms mean the same thing and are used interchangeably.
DReintroduction applies only to plants and supplementation only to animals.
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ENVIRONMENTApplicationMedium

Q2. Conservationists stress that a reintroduction depends as much on the destination habitat as on the animals released. Why is preparing Buxa's habitat before release essential?

ABecause a reserve loses its tigers for reasons such as inadequate prey and human pressure, so releasing new animals into an unchanged habitat risks repeating the conditions that emptied it.
BBecause the animals must be released only in the monsoon season regardless of habitat.
CBecause habitat preparation is a legal formality with no ecological effect.
DBecause tigers imprint on the exact enclosure they are bred in.
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ENVIRONMENTAnalysisHard

Q3. Consider the following statements about tiger conservation in India: 1. Project Tiger was launched in 1973 and the National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. 2. Sariska and Panna were both repopulated through managed translocation after losing their entire tiger populations. 3. Because India's tiger population is critically endangered and still falling, there are no reserves with a surplus of tigers from which animals could be sourced. Which of the statements given above are correct?

A1 and 2 only
B1 only
C2 and 3 only
D1, 2 and 3
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