Reintroduction based recovery of tiger population in Panna Tiger Reserve, Central India

Summary

India's Panna Tiger Reserve lost its entire tiger population to poaching by 2008 to 2009, prompting the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Tiger Conservation Authority to launch a reintroduction in 2009 aimed at 25 adult tigers, the reserve's estimated carrying capacity, within ten years. Three tigers, one male and two females from different source populations, were released in 2009 and began breeding almost immediately; because the resulting litters skewed male, subsequent releases favoured females, adding two captive-reared, semi-wild-trained females in 2011 and another in 2014, plus one male in 2015 that had wandered into the city of Bhopal and was relocated rather than being sourced deliberately. Every tiger was fitted with a VHF or GPS collar and monitored around the clock by dedicated forest-department and Wildlife Institute teams, using both ground triangulation and trained elephants for close observation. Within six years the population had produced more than 50 individuals, reaching and then exceeding the 25-adult carrying-capacity target, with the reserve now home to more than 35 tigers including sub-adults and cubs, and tigers dispersing from Panna have since been used to help restock other reserves. One released male briefly left the reserve and had to be recaptured, and mistrust of the reintroduction persisted for a time among some conservationists and local communities. The project rates itself highly successful, and its authors describe it as a model program shaping tiger reintroduction planning elsewhere in Asia.