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On the edges of India’s forests, a new tiger story is emerging. These tigers do not range grasslands or stalk deer in open forests. Instead, they move through the dense, impenetrable thickets of Lantana camara. They hunt where wild herbivores rarely tread. Their prey is not chital or sambar, but cattle—often old, unproductive or free-ranging. And they are increasingly found not inside protected areas but just beyond them. After sugarcane tigers, India now faces another stranger chapter: the rise of the “lantana tigers”.
It is more than a metaphor. It is an ecological pattern unfolding across the country, in landscapes surrounding tiger reserves like Bandhavgarh, Tadoba, Kanha and Pench. It is a story shaped by an invasive plant, changing pastoral economies and a predator adapting faster than societal responses. And it may redefine how we think about coexistence, conflict and conservation in the Anthropocene.
Lantana was introduced to India in the early 19th century as an ornamental hedge plant. Today, it is one of the country’s most aggressive invasive species, occupying 50 per cent of forest areas, scrublands and village commons, and expanding to newer areas every year. Lantana is just one example of many such invasive plants that are becoming dense and native woody plants, and are increasingly expanding into open ecosystems due to climatic changes.
What matters here is not lantana alone, but the cascade it triggers. Where lantana takes hold, it forms dense thickets that suppress native grasses, herbs and shrubs. By suppressing native forage for wild herbivores like chital, sambar and nilgai, lantana creates prey-poor but structurally complex landscapes. There is little forage, poor visibility and high movement cost. As lantana expands, these animals retreat, concentrating inside protected areas or in the shrinking pockets of intact habitat. But tigers see something different...
This column was originally published as part of the cover story Rethinking Conservation in the June 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth
