PTR tiger population rises to 80; up by 9 in 3 years
PTR divisional forest officer Manish Singh said on Saturday that this figure excludes 30 to 35% of tigers that live in fields around the reserve due to overcrowding in the reserve's core. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) 2022 national census, PTR had over 71 tigers, not counting cubs under one year.
The internal estimation began in Nov 2024, dividing the reserve's 620sqkm core area into 316 grids of 2x2sqkm each.
Each grid was equipped with two camera traps facing each other. Due to limited equipment, the survey was carried out in two phases, ending in March 2025.
Singh said, "In the first phase, camera traps were installed in the Mala, Mahof, and Deuria forest ranges in Nov and removed in the last week of Jan. The uninstalled cameras were set up in the Baharhi and Haripur ranges in mid-Feb and removed in the last week of March for data retrieval."
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WWF biologists, led by Ashish Bista and Rohit Ravi, analysed tiger images over four months to finalise the count. Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) field director H Rajamohan said that similar data is still under analysis.
The DFO said that the data from the internal estimation would soon be shared officially with PTR officials and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The growing tiger numbers have heightened the risk of human-wildlife conflict in the rural belt, with seven villagers killed by stray tigers between May 14 and July 17. Officials fear such incidents may rise.
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