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A forested tiger reserve in southern India is home to a thriving population of spotted and sambar deer, nilgai antelopes, and wild pigs \u2014 all ideal prey for tigers. Yet the reserve has no resident tigers, reports<\/a> contributor Nivedhika Krishnan for Mongabay India.<\/p>\n Kawal Tiger Reserve in the state of Telangana connects key tiger populations in the reserves of Tadoba-Andhari, in Maharashtra state to the west, and Indravati, in Chhattisgarh state to the east. Since 2015, researchers have confirmed that only 15 tigers entered Kawal from Maharashtra. Of these, only two were females.<\/p>\n Lead researcher Imran Siddiqui told Mongabay India that tigers traveling from Maharashtra to Kawal face heavy infrastructure throughout their journey.<\/p>\n \u201cThe corridor is fragmented by open-cast coal mines, the Ada irrigation project, electrified farm fences, and the main Hyderabad-Nagpur railway line,\u201d Siddiqui said. \u201cNational Highway 44 acts as the most formidable barrier of all with its heavy traffic and high fencing. It isn\u2019t just one obstacle \u2014 it is a cumulative mosaic of risks that forces dispersing tigers to turn back.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that while male tigers dispersing from their birthplace are \u201cbolder risk-takers\u201d and can move long distances through human-dominated landscapes, female tigers are more risk-averse and \u201crequire quiet, undisturbed habitat to raise cubs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCrossing busy highways, railways, and mines poses a massive perceived threat to females,\u201d Siddiqui said. \u201cThat is why males occasionally dodge traffic to reach Kawal, but females turn back. Without females, you simply cannot build a breeding population.\u201d<\/p>\n Anish Andheria, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Trust, told Mongabay India that the reserve itself needs a core area free from human settlements, like in India\u2019s other tiger reserves. As of 2023, there were 37 villages and 67 small settlements inside Kawal Tiger Reserve\u2019s core<\/span>, he said.<\/p>\n But keeping people out of the ecosystem is a fraught issue. When Kawal was declared a tiger reserve in 2012, authorities had promised the resident Indigenous communities, the Adivasis, that the change wouldn\u2019t harm their legal rights or survival, said Siddam Bhujang Rao, a local Adivasi leader. \u201cBut once the reserve was established, their stance completely shifted.\u201d<\/p>\n Families who were relocated from the core reserve, for instance, received little of what was promised to them in the official relocation package for the villages, Rao said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey promised us land, water, and model villages,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, families were moved to houses with crumbling plaster, and the agricultural lands were never handed over.\u201d<\/p>\n Wildlife managers have also floated the idea of \u201cassisted dispersal,\u201d where wild female tigers from dense populations in states like Maharashtra are airlifted directly into Kawal. But Siddiqui warned that such manual translocations aren\u2019t \u201ca shortcut for fixing broken corridors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBringing tigers from outside will not work,\u201d Rao agreed. \u201cIt is a flawed idea, and it should be abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full story by Nivedhika Krishnan <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Banner image:<\/em><\/strong> A tiger in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, from where tigers move to Kawal Tiger Reserve but do not live there. Representative<\/span> image by A.J.T Johnsingh, WWF-India & NCF via <\/em>Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(<\/em>CC BY-SA 4.0<\/em><\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n
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