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Odisha will start a melanistic tiger safari near Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR), Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced. The safari will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and the Chief Minister invited tourists to see “the rare and majestic” melanistic tiger species “found only in Odisha”.
Melanism is a genetic condition in which an increased production of melanin, a substance in the skin that produces hair, eye, and skin pigmentation, results in black (or nearly black) skin, feathers, or hair in an animal.
Many royal Bengal tigers of Similipal belong to a unique lineage with higher-than-normal levels of melanin, which gives them black and yellow interspersed stripes on their coats. These tigers are not entirely black, and are therefore more accurately described as being pseudo-melanistic.
The STR, which sprawls over 2,750 square km in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district adjoining Jharkhand and West Bengal, is Asia’s second largest biosphere, and the country’s only wild habitat for melanistic royal Bengal tigers.
According to research co-authored by Uma Ramakrishnan and her student Vinay Sagar from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NBCS), Bengaluru, a single mutation in the gene Transmembrane Aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep) causes black tigers to develop stripes that seem to have broadened or spread into the tawny background.
Genetic analyses of other tiger populations in India and computer simulations suggest that the Similipal black tigers may have arisen from a very small founding population of tigers, and are inbred. The STR cats live isolated from other tigers, because of which they breed among themselves.
“Approximately 37% of tigers… in the Similipal Tiger Reserve are pseudomelanistic, characterized by wide, merged stripes. Camera trap data across the tiger range revealed the presence of pseudomelanistic tigers only in Similipal,” the researchers wrote. (‘High frequency of an otherwise rare phenotype in a small and isolated tiger population’; Sagar, Ramakrishnan, and others: PNAS, Sept 2021)
The researchers examined the “role of drift in driving this phenotype’s frequency”. They concluded that “pseudomelanism cosegregates with a…coding alteration in…Taqpep, a gene responsible for similar traits in other felid species”.
Sampling revealed a high frequency of the mutation in Similipal, and absence in all other tiger populations (395 individuals). “Population genetic analyses confirmed few (minimal number) tigers in Similipal, and its genetic isolation, with poor geneflow,” the researchers said.
“Melanistic tigers have been recorded only in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha. As per the 2022 cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation, 16 individuals were recorded at Similipal Tiger Reserve, out of which 10 were melanistic,” Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey told Rajya Sabha on December 21, 2023.
The state government’s ongoing tiger survey, however, suggests that the number of royal Bengal tigers in STR is more than what has been mentioned in the NTCA report. The state government’s report will be released soon.
Susanta Nanda, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Odisha, said around 200 hectares of land along the Dhanbad-Balasore National Highway-18 has been identified for the proposed safari. The site is about 15 km from the STR, and its landscape matches that of Simlipal.
About 100 hectares will be the display area of the park, and the rest will be used to build veterinary care facilities, including a rescue centre, staff infrastructure, and visitors’ amenities. Initially, three melanistic tigers from the Nandankanan zoo north of Bhubaneswar, and rescued/ orphaned tigers who are not fit for wild but fit for display, will be housed in the safari in an open enclosure.
The safari aims to allow wildlife conservationists, researchers, and enthusiasts to see the rare big cats from up close, and to create awareness about the need for their conservation. The sighting of tigers is difficult in STR because of its vast area, and the safari has been proposed as an added attraction for visitors to Similipal.
An NTCA committee will visit the proposed site to carry out a feasibility study before final clearance is given to the project. The state government will also have to obtain other statutory clearances, including approval from the Central Zoo Authority, a body under the Environment Ministry that has oversight over zoos in the country.
