Endangered Asiatic wild water buffalo reintroduced in Kanha reserve after 2,000 km journey from Kaziranga

Kaziranga is the largest home for one-horned rhinos but Asiatic wild water buffalo is another of its attractions

Guwahati: In what conservationists termed a landmark conservation effort, endangered Asiatic wild water buffalos have been reintroduced in its "ancestral" habitat -- Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh after a 2000 km-long translocation journey from Assam's Kaziranga National Park (KNP).

The first batch of four water buffalos, one male and three female, were transported from Kaziranga on April 25 and were released in the Kanha on Tuesday (April 28), officials at Kaziranga said.

"The aim of the joint initiative of Assam and Madhya Pradesh forest department is to reintroduce the mega-herbivores to their ancestral home in Central India, where they have been locally extinct for over a century, and to leverage their natural grazing behaviors to manage tall grass species and enhance biodiversity in the Kanha grasslands," said KNP director Sonali Ghosh, in a statement on Tuesday.

The global population of the Asiatic Wild Water Buffalo, which is listed as Schedule I species under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, stands at fewer than 4,000 individuals, with roughly 99 per cent residing in Assam alone.

With a target to secure the species' future, the multi-phase project targets the translocation of 50 wild buffaloes from Kaziranga to Kanha in the next one year.

"A feasibility study conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India identified Kanha National Park's grasslands and meadows as ideal—mirroring Kaziranga's habitat. As mega-herbivores and grassland engineers, these buffaloes boost biodiversity and restore wilderness. Last sighted in Kanha in 1979, they were deemed locally extinct—until now," said the statement.

Translocation journey

Between March 19 and April 10, seven sub-adult buffaloes were captured across the Central and Eastern ranges of Kaziranga. To ensure their well-being and quarantine protocol, the captured animals were held in two specialized enclosures, constructed of natural materials like Bombax ceiba (Simul) and reinforced with solar fencing.

This intervening period allowed the buffaloes to habituate to caretakers, health monitoring, and transport vehicles, significantly minimising potential stress during the transfer. On April 25, the first batch of four buffaloes were loaded into specialised transportation vehicles and flagged off by forest officials from both Kaziranga and Kanha. A second batch of four buffaloes is scheduled for transport by April 30.

"The conservation translocation of wild buffaloes from Kaziranga to Kanha is one of the longest journeys of over 2000 km by road. Prior to this, four individuals from Manas National Park in Assam were translocated to Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary, Chhattisgarh in April 2020. The present translocation from Kaziranga is most ambitious with a target of 50 individuals to be moved for a viable population," it said.

The statement said as a noble gesture to boost conservation translocations, Madhya Pradesh has expressed its willingness to provide Gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) for a potential reintroduction in its past historical range in Assam.