Rajasthan’s Chief Wildlife Warden has constituted a three-member committee after an internal report said that as many as 25 tigers were missing at the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. An order dated November 4 by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Pavan Kumar Upadhyay states that information about the disappearance of tigers in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve has been coming in the Tiger Monitoring Report for a long time. “In this regard, several letters have also been written to the Field Director, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, but no satisfactory change is visible in the situation,” Upadhyay said. As per Upadhayay, there are an estimated 75 tigers in Ranthambore, not counting tigers T-58 and T-86 – both of which died recently. His order cited a report dated October 14, which states that no concrete evidence of 11 tigers has been received for more than a year, and the same for 14 tigers in less than a year. According to Upadhyay, in such a situation, it is appropriate that an inquiry committee be constituted to look into the matter. The committee will investigate the missing tigers and submit its report to him. The three-member committee comprises APCCF (Wildlife) Rajesh Kumar Gupta, as well as Forest Department officials Dr T Mohan Raj and Manas Singh. They have been tasked to present their report in two months. The committee has been asked to find out the efforts made by the Field Director and the concerned Deputy Field Director to trace the tigers, examine all records of tiger monitoring, suggest disciplinary action in case of negligence by any concerned official, and list suggestions to remove the shortcomings of the system. “When I became the Chief Wildlife Warden, I started studying the Tiger Monitoring Reports. I wrote the first letter in this regard in April 2024…but the answer was not satisfactory,” Upadhyay said. He said that as for the 14 missing tigers that were last spotted within a year, the oldest photo for one was from May 17, 2024 and the latest is from September 30. “But even a month is a long time,” Upadhyay said. He, however, said this doesn’t mean these tigers have been killed or poached. “It could be that maybe they aren’t being captured in the camera trap. We collect evidence in three ways: one is pugmarks, the second is direct sighting and the third is camera trap, with the last two being most reliable. So, if they are not being spotted, then maybe the tigers are in such a spot where they aren’t being spotted, or that they may have migrated to a different spot. Some of our tigers go to Kuno while some come here from there. We are not ruling out any possibility, and the committee’s report will make it clear,” he said.
