Overview
- Assam will send 50 wild water buffaloes to Madhya Pradesh over three years for release in Kanha Tiger Reserve under a newly announced pact.
- The plan calls for phased translocation, with reports indicating 12–15 animals in each of the first three years and initial holding in predator-proof enclosures.
- Madhya Pradesh will also receive a pair of one-horned rhinoceroses and three king cobras, which will be acclimatised at Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal.
- In return, Madhya Pradesh will transfer tigers and six mugger crocodiles to Assam, though reports differ on whether two or three tigers are included.
- The wild water buffalo vanished from Madhya Pradesh over a century ago, and Assam’s Kaziranga and Manas hold India’s core populations of the endangered species.