The Roar Beyond Kanha: The Balaghat Tigers
Imagine you are coming back from the Kanha tiger reserve and heading to the Pench tiger reserve. You are a little disappointed because you missed tigers thrice by only a few minutes. You think such events can happen, and you are satisfied by the efforts of your naturalist and guide. You are positive about your Pench safaris and looking forward to tiger sightings in Pench.
You leave for Pench very early in the morning because you have your afternoon safari booked there. As you think about your safaris in Kanha, you look at the jungles you are passing through. You asked your driver to slow down a little bit so that you can scan the forest and look for birds and any mammals.
Then, suddenly you spotted stripes in the bush, and you asked your driver to slow down. Oh my god, it’s a tiger. He is coming out of the bush and crossing the road. It’s your first tiger sighting, and that, too, is outside the tiger reserve. No alarm call, no other vehicles—it’s purely a surprise. Happy driver, delighted guest!
But you know how these sightings happen; yes, it’s pure luck, but the tigers outside the tiger reserves? Are they able to survive in the human-dominated landscape, or how do these people live with a big cat next door? Is it coexistence or man-animal conflict?
The Balaghat tigers
India is a land of more than 75% of the tigers of the world, and according to the last census, there are more than 3,682 tigers in India. This counting was done inside the tiger reserve, but according to an estimate, most tigers in India live outside the tiger reserve. This phenomenon is the reason why sometimes, somewhere, someone spots a tiger outside the reserve.
Recently the forest department of Madhya Pradesh and WWF India conducted a camera trap survey in the forests of Balaghat divisions, which are connected with the forests of Kanha and Pench tiger reserves. This is a part of the vital corridor connecting two protected areas. The corridor has already been surveyed for the movement of wildlife from one reserve to another reserve, but this survey was more focused on finding the resident tiger and leopard population.
These tigers live peacefully with the local community, which is an example of coexistence. Though there are few cases of cattle lifting, timely compensation and monitoring of kills by the forest department and local conservation organization do not let the villagers retaliate.
Balaghat is the only non-protected area designated as WWF’s global TX2 site with a commitment to double its tiger population. The total area of Balaghat Circle, which constitutes the North Balaghat Division and South Balaghat Division, is approximately 4,900 sq km, which is more than double the Kanha Tiger Reserve.
The result
The result of the survey was exciting, and this population assessment indicates that the Balaghat forests support a minimum of 49 tigers with a sex ratio of two females per male.
Deep inside the forests of Balaghat, hidden cameras were quietly recording a story nobody expected at this scale. Striped shadows and spotted ghosts kept moving through the night in scenes outside of well-known tiger reserves.
To get the information about the resident tigers in Balaghat, WWF has installed camera traps, and with these devices they have got amazing diversity in the forests. Camera traps captured a total of 18 individual tigers and 27 leopards. The camera trap also reported several prey species, including sambar, spotted deer, gaur, chinkara, nilgai, wild pig, and Hanuman langur.
What makes the discovery remarkable is that these are not core tiger areas of the tiger reserve. These are forests where community lives and shared landscapes exist, and yet the wild still survives, a perfect example of coexistence.
