The dense forests of the Supkhar range in the Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR), characterised by tall grasslands, once served as a safe corridor for Naxals. Located on the Madhya Pradesh–Chhattisgarh border, the area formed part of KTR’s non-tourist zone and, till a few years ago, was the most preferred passage for the Kanha–Bhoramdeo division of the CPI (Maoist)’s Maharashtra–Madhya Pradesh–Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone. “This is where three dalams of the outlawed outfit laid out their ambitious expansion plans to establish the Amarkantak plateau — located at the junction of the Vindhya and Satpura ranges in MP — as a vantage point to expand their influence,” recalled a senior police officer who was part of the state’s anti-Naxal operations for long.
The same marshy and moist forest patches are now set to become the launch pad for the Wild Buffalo Reintroduction Project, one of Madhya Pradesh’s most ambitious inter-state wildlife translocation projects.
It was in these jungles that camera traps installed to record tiger movement were often taken away by Left Wing Extremists (LWEs), who would also seize ration, money, clothes and shoes belonging to the Forest department’s frontline staff. The same workforce is now racing against time to build protective infrastructure to welcome wild buffaloes from Assam’s Kaziranga Tiger Reserve in February–March, more than a century after the species became extinct from this part of central India.
With all listed Naxal operatives either neutralised or having laid down arms by the end of 2025, MP has partnered with Assam to bring back wild buffaloes to the land from where they vanished due to hunting, expanding agriculture, competitive livestock grazing and increased forest fires.
According to MP Forest Department sources, there was a sighting of a single wild buffalo in Panna in the 1970s, but never more than one. The wild buffalo is a key subject in the prehistoric rock paintings found at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in the foothills of the Vindhya range. It is the same region in KTR that has been selected as the habitat for reintroducing wild buffaloes, following a study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 2022–23.
From Assam to Kanha
Currently, there are about 4,000 wild buffaloes in the world, with nearly 90 per cent found in India. The predominant population is in Assam, followed by smaller populations in Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
“Being a key coarse-grass feeder, their translocation and introduction in Kanha will aid grazing succession even in areas currently dominated by long grass, and help create new habitats for antelopes that feed on soft and short grass. This will also benefit other herbivores such as chital and barasingha,” MP’s principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF-wildlife) and chief wildlife warden Subha Ranjan Sen said.
The Supkhar forest range of KTR was found ideal in the WII habitat suitability study due to an abundance of long and coarse grasslands, excellent biomass, lower competition from other herbivores, moist marshy terrain, year-round water availability and minimal anthropogenic pressure.
Informed sources said translocating wild buffaloes from neighbouring Chhattisgarh would have been ideal due to a lower possibility of genetic swamping (hybridisation) and the shorter distance between Kanha and existing habitats in the neighbouring state. However, apprehensions over the continued Naxal threat in regions such as Udanti–Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, Indravati Tiger Reserve and Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary where wild buffaloes exist but limited numbers, prompted MP wildlife authorities to opt for translocation from Assam, nearly 1,600 km away. Mitochondrial DNA analysis conducted to assess genetic similarities between the limited Chhattisgarh population and the larger Assam population revealed close resemblance.
Plan and preparations
Recently, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his MP counterpart Dr Mohan Yadav met in Guwahati, where it was mutually agreed that 50 wild buffaloes would be brought in three batches over a period of three years. “The 50 buffaloes to be translocated over three years — starting with 10–15 individuals by February–March this year — will serve as the optimal founder population for a larger breeding programme. Once their numbers rise significantly, they will first be released into the wild in KTR,” Sen said.
The release is likely to begin once the population reaches around 200. After KTR, the Satpura Tiger Reserve may also receive wild buffaloes in the years ahead, having been identified as the second most suitable site in the WII study. As of now, the plan is to source the buffaloes from Kaziranga Tiger Reserve in Assam. The inter-state translocation and reintroduction programme, aided by the WII, is not the first of its kind in the MP–Chhattisgarh region. Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh initiated a similar effort in 2021 by translocating five wild buffaloes from Assam’s Manas Tiger Reserve. A team from KTR recently toured Chhattisgarh as part of an exposure visit for the project.
“We are racing against time as the first batch of wild buffaloes is scheduled to arrive by February–March. This is perhaps the state’s most ambitious wildlife translocation project after the inter-continental cheetah project at Kuno National Park. We are working rigorously to put the necessary infrastructure in place in Supkhar forests, which will host the project,” said KTR Field Director Ravindra Mani Tripathi.
A 150-hectare enclosure will be developed and partitioned into multiple sub-enclosures to accommodate the megaherbivores and address their breeding and multiplication needs. CCTV cameras are being installed, a dedicated team of veterinary doctors is being readied, and a command centre is being set up along with protocols for round-the-clock vehicular patrolling and monitoring.