Ten of the 25 tigers ‘allegedly missing’ from Ranthambore National Park and Tiger Reserve have been traced, officials have confirmed to Down To Earth (DTE).
Park officials had succeeded in finding evidence about the presence of the big cats inside the tiger reserve on November 6, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Pavan Upadhyay told DTE.
“The remaining 15 tigers continue to remain off radar and a committee has been constituted and tasked to locate them. Committee members have been instructed to find the tigers and their possible location,” said Upadhyay.
The PCCF said the committee was formed by an order issued by the chief wildlife warden on November 4. It was formed as repeated correspondence seeking a report on the missing tigers elicited no response from the field director.
A report by the Rajasthan Forest Department dated October 14 and cited in multiple media outlets states that “there has been no concrete evidence of 11 tigers for over a year, and substantial evidence of 14 others has not been obtained for less than a year.”
Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR) had an estimated population of 88 tigers according to the 2022 census, published in 2023.
The committee is comprised of Assistant Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF, Wildlife) Rajesh Kumar Gupta and officials T Mohan Raj and Manas Singh. It is expected to share its findings within two months.
In 2023, four tigers reportedly died while another three succumbed in 2024, according to the records of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
The officials collect evidence of the tigers based on pug marks, sightings and trap cameras.
This is the second time that such an instance has been reported. Earlier, about 13 tigers were reported as missing from RTR from January 2019 until January 2022.
Dharmendra Khandal, conservation biologist with Tiger Watch, an organisation based in Ranthambore working towards wildlife conservation said there could be multiple reasons for the tigers to have gone out of sight.
“The monsoon is just over and it takes time for the officials to make way into the interior of the park and locate the animals,” he said.
The other reason could also be infighting or territorial conflict that may have caused tigers to move away or led to deaths in some cases, Khandal said. “The deaths will have to be ascertained by officials,” he added.
Dense tiger populations concentrated in small territories often lead to infighting among individuals for space.
“There have been some cases of poisoning of tigers reported in recent years. There needs to be more transparency in sharing of information,” he said.
Khandal said effective habitat management is the key to protecting tigers and ensuring they thrive. At present, 1,400 sq km of the 1,700 sq km area of RTR serves as critical tiger habitat while about 300 sq km is the buffer zone. “More area needs to be prepared to house the growing tiger population,” he added.
According to an NTCA report, issues such as habitat restoration due to spread of invasive species like Prosopis juliflora and prey augmentations remain a challenge for authorities.
Tiger abundance in RTR was estimated to be about 32 in 2006, according to NTCA. This gradually increased to about 57 individuals by 2022.