In this paper, we have investigated the influence of growth-interruption during buffer layer growth on killer defect density in SiC epilayer grown over 4H-SiC (0001) substrates. We have observed that the growth-interruption method reduces total killer defect density by ~45(±5)%. Implementing growth-interruption in the buffer layer is a novel approach to mitigate epitaxial defects such as in-grown stacking faults (SFs), triangular defects, and basal plane dislocations (BPDs) in the drift layer and provide an extra margin to bipolar degradation by terminating BPDs early in the heavily doped buffer layer. The defect reduction mechanism in presence of hydrogen has been simulated using Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations.