THE MISSING STRIPES

Behind the missing 15 big cats in the Ranthambore National Park are a lax monitoring system by local forest officials, political pressure and unreliable numbers

- Rohit Parihar

The initial news came as a shock-a report by the Rajasthan forest department dated October 14 stated that 25 tigers in the famous Ranthambore National Park and Tiger Reserve were "missing". While 11 animals were untraced for over a year, evidence of 14 others had not been obtained for months. According to the official census, the total number of tigers in Ranthambore was 52 in 2022. The worst fear: was Ranthambore going to suffer the fate of the Sariska wildlife sanctuary, also in Rajasthan, where the local tiger population was wiped out in 2006? However, better news followed on November 6-forest officials found evidence of 10 of the 25 big cats. Two probes have been ordered. On November 4, Rajasthan's principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden Pavan Kumar Upadhyay ordered an inquiry into the disappearing tigers. Three days later, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) asked the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) to gather detailed intelligence on the matter. NTCA member secretary Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj led a team to Jaipur to assess reports on tigers spotted in direct sightings and on trap cameras, the usual methods-along with assessing pug marks-through which tiger numbers are estimated in India.

Moving beyond the usual tiger conservation issues-habitat management, prey base, man-animal conflict, diseases and threat from poaching-Ranthambore's missing tigers bring into focus the nagging problem of unreliable tiger numbers. Though NTCA's tiger censuses every four years have greater credibility now due to camera use, experts feel it is the low quality of day-to-day monitoring by local officials of deaths, injuries, births and disappearances due to movements to other places, where the real problem lies.