Roar falling silent in Odisha: 45 tigers in 2006, 20 now; one reserve left with none

Convinced there are more tigers than recorded in the census, the state government will conduct its own survey later this year.

The All India Tiger Estimation -2022 was released by Union MoS for Forest, Environment and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey in Uttarakhand on the occasion of International Tiger Day.

It shows that the number of tigers in India has increased from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,682 in 2022, an annual rise of 6%. Madhya Pradesh has the most number (785) of tigers, followed by Karnataka (563), Uttarakhand (560), and Maharashtra (444).

Bucking the trend, Odisha has 20 tigers, down from 28 in 2018, and a 55% fall since 2006, when the state had 45 tigers.

The only positive blip tiger numbers in the past 16 years was in 2010, when the census recorded 32 tigers in Odisha.

What’s added to the alarm now is that there are no tigers left in the Satkosia Tiger Reserve, which had just one tiger in 2018. Though, at the only other reserve, Similipal Tiger Reserve, the number has doubled from 8 in 2018 to 16 in 2022.

While not discounting natural deaths, many wildlife experts blame rampant poaching for the worrying decline in tiger numbers. Others believe there’s a need to increase the tigers’ prey base to ensure their sustainability.

“Though Odisha has habitats for tigers, there is a need to increase the prey base to sustain the tiger population. Officials should ensure the population of chital, sambhar and deer is increased to sustain tiger population,” said Anup Nayak, former additional director general (project tiger) of the NTCA.

However, forest department officials have raised questions on the NTCA’s methodology, use of camera traps and the prey-based method, since 2006. They say the tigers numbers are likely more than what’s been reported as the census exercise was carried out around 2021 when many tigers, who are adults now, were cubs and, thus, not counted.

Said SK Popli, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife): “As ordered by the Chief Minister (Naveen Patnaik) in May this year, we will be carrying out the estimation ourselves in the state from October, 2023. This exercise will provide the updated status of the tigers in the state.”