At 390, Maharashtra tiger tally roars louder riding on Vidarbha big cats

NAGPUR: Even as evaluation of the All India Tiger Estimation-2022 report on individual tiger reserves is in process, the Phase IV monitoring project titled ‘Long-term monitoring of tigers, co-predators, and prey in tiger reserves and other tiger bearing areas of Vidarbha & Maharashtra’ reveals there are minimum 390 tigers in the state and 706 leopards in Vidarbha.
The project was initiated by the WII, Dehradun, under the aegis of the state forest department. The report states that the estimated population of tigers in Maharashtra is 446 (403-489) and the number of leopards in Vidarbha is 902 (785-1,008).

The minimum number is the actual individuals captured on camera traps while estimated numbers mean the number of tigers and leopards can be 446 and 902, respectively.
In the 2021 report on ‘Longterm monitoring of tigers, co-predators, and prey in tiger bearing areas of Vidarbha, the minimum number of tigers was 352 with an estimation of 396 (359-433) tigers. Similarly, the minimum number of leopards was 635 with a population estimation of 731 (663-798) in the Vidarbha landscape. However, as per AITE-2018 (done every four years), there were 312 tigers and 1,690 leopards in Maharashtra.
Considering the WII's 2022 report on Phase IV monitoring, there is an increase of 38 tigers and 71 leopards. “With 1,161 tigers, the Central Indian Landscape (CIL) has the world’s highest metapopulation of tigers, and Maharashtra is a major contributor considering the estimated 446 tigers,” said PCCF (wildlife) Maheep Gupta.
“Though tiger numbers are stable in several PAs like Navegaon-Nagzira, Pench, and territorial blocks, this is for the first time we did a camera trapping survey in Gadchiroli, where 27 tigers were estimated. Melghat Tiger Reserve and Bramhapuri division has shown an upward trend,” Gupta said.
“The increase in numbers is the result of curbs on organized poaching, habitat management works due to which survival rate of tiger cubs has gone up. The number may even be more considering the tigers in Muktai-Bhavani sanctuary in Jalgaon,” said Gupta.
“Even as the number of tigers has gone up, the challenge to tackle man-animal conflict remains. Hence, our focus is on the translocation of tigers,” he said. “It’s good that the tiger numbers have increased in Maharashtra. Gadchiroli circle had its first-ever systematic camera trapping exercise during the AITE.
The entire credit goes to the ground staff. In Gadchiroli and Tadoba, staff has done the camera trapping on its own. I believe that with an increased number of tigers, we also need to build the capacity of staff to adopt more advanced technologies,” said Prajakta Hushangabadkar, a wildlife biologist with Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR).
Former honorary wildlife warden Uday Patel, however, contested the claims of increase in the tiger numbers. He said, “Data on tigers for Warora-Bhadravati, Central Chanda, Rajura, Kanhargaon, Junona, and Bawanthadi (Nagpur and Bhandara divisions), pertains to 2018 and 2021.
There were several tiger deaths and captures in these areas in the last two years. A fresh estimation needs to be done here.” Former state wildlife board member Bandu Dhotre says, “In Chandrapur district alone, there may be at least 250 tigers considering the urban tiger population in coal mines areas and power plant, which have not been estimated in the Phase IV monitoring.”
The objective of Phase IV monitoring is to estimate the number of tigers in the reserves using spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) sampling and density estimation of prey base using distance sampling. Camera traps were placed in a total of 3,352 grids of 2.01sqkm area each across study areas in Vidarbha-Maharashtra with a total sampling effort of over 1.12 lakh trap nights.
The WII has recommended adding inviolate buffer areas of tiger reserves to the core to make them more sustainable for the long-term conservation of tigers in the landscape.