Buxa Tiger Reserve:
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken Suo-motu cognisance of a report on the mowing down of three elephants by a goods train at Buxa Tiger Reserve.
- Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) lies in the Alipurduar sub-division of the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal.
- Its northern boundary runs along the international border with Bhutan.
- The Sinchula hill range lies all along the northern side of BTR, and the eastern boundary touches that of Assam State.
- It got its name from Buxa Fort, which is located on the Sinchula Range at an altitude of 867 metres.
- The fragile “Terai Ecosystem” constitutes a part of this reserve.
- It serves as an international corridor for elephant migration between India and Bhutan.
- Two rivers, namely the River Raidak and the River Jayanti, flow through the forest of Buxa.
- The forests of the reserve can be broadly classified as the ‘Moist Tropical Forest’ of Champion and Seth’s (1968) recent classification.
- Some of the important species are Sal, Champa, Gamar, Simul, and Chikrasi.
- The main species include the Tiger, elephant, leopard cat, gaur, wild boar, sambar, hog deer, Chinese pangolin, etc.
