The tiger reserve with abundant prey but no resident tigers

- Linear infrastructure cuts off tiger corridors in Telangana making it hard for tigers, particularly females, to reach Kawal Tiger Reserve, leaving the reserve without a breeding population. - Fragmented corridors increase chances of human–tiger conflict, while unmanaged free-ranging dog populations pose disease risks to wild carnivores. - Meanwhile, broken resettlement promises to the displaced Adivasi communities alienate the forest’s original guardians. Deep in northern Telangana, Kawal Tiger Reserve covers a thick forest of teak and bamboo near the Godavari river. Geographically, it sits in an ideal location, connecting major tiger landscapes. It links Tadoba-Andhari in Maharashtra to the west and Indravati in Chhattisgarh to the east. Kawal supports large populations of spotted deer, sambar, nilgai, and wild pigs, alongside leopards and wild dogs. On paper, the tiger reserve checks the boxes of sufficient prey and habitat. But the reserve has no resident tigers. A 12-year study conducted between 2010 and 2022 confirmed that no tigers live permanently in Kawal. Using systematically placed line transects to monitor prey numbers, researchers found that spotted deer populations grew over the decade, while sambar, nilgai, and chousingha populations remained stable. Despite this rich prey base, researchers recorded only 15 transient tigers entering Kawal from Maharashtra since 2015. Crucially, only two of these visiting tigers were female. While neighbouring corridors outside the reserve have breeding tigers with cubs, Kawal itself remains empty. According to lead researcher Imran Siddiqui, this absence comes down to a fundamental difference in how male and female tigers disperse, “Tigers disperse very differently based on sex. Male tigers are bolder risk-takers — they grow faster, leave their mothers earlier, and travel long distances through unfamiliar, human-dominated landscapes to claim territory. Female tigers are conservative — they stay close to their birthplace and require quiet, undisturbed habitat to raise cubs. Crossing busy highways, railways, and mines poses a massive perceived threat to females. That is why males occasionally dodge traffic to reach Kawal, but females turn back. Without females, you simply cannot build a breeding population.” Stranded on the edge Tigers moving south from Maharashtra try to reach Kawal in Telangana through three main routes: from Tadoba-Andhari through the Kagaznagar-Mancherial Forest Divisions in the northeast of Telangana, through the Asifabad Forest Division in the north, and from Tipeshwar through the Adilabad-Ichoda-Nirmal Forest Divisions in the northwest of the state. Data from Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) software shows that tigers most frequently attempt the route through Kagaznagar and Mancherial. However, heavy infrastructure development blocks their path. “The corridor is fragmented by open-cast coal mines, the Ada irrigation project, electrified farm fences, and the main Hyderabad-Nagpur railway line,” says Siddiqui. “National Highway 44 acts as the most formidable barrier of all with its heavy traffic and high fencing. It isn’t just one obstacle — it is a cumulative mosaic of risks that forces dispersing tigers to turn back.” As dispersing tigers get stuck along these fragmented edges, human-tiger conflict has increased, reported the study. Displaced animals frequently attack livestock, leading to retaliatory poisonings, human casualties, and rising local hostility toward tiger conservation. Adding to these edge-of-forest pressures, free-ranging dogs near villages present another growing threat to recovering wildlife. “Free-ranging dogs pose a double threat near forest edges,” explains Siddiqui. “They act as disease reservoirs for dangerous pathogens like Canine Distemper Virus, which can infect tigers and other large cats. At the same time, dogs chase young deer, compete with native carnivores, and disturb wildlife near villages. Managing stray dog populations and expanding vaccination coverage around protected areas are critical preventive measures for tiger recovery.” Internal protection versus structural realities While long-term habitat protection inside the reserve has successfully allowed ungulate populations to rebuild over time, independent experts warn that internal management alone cannot resolve the deeper, structural challenges facing the reserve. Anish Andheria, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Trust, points out that internal habitat protection encounters a fundamental bottleneck inside the core itself, “Internal habitat protection is ultimately insufficient because Kawal Tiger Reserve faces a more foundational challenge — the lack of inviolate space within the reserve itself. There were 37 villages and 67 small settlements inside the core itself, along with a whopping 267 villages in the buffer zone (as of 2023). Unless the core area becomes completely inviolate, similar to other successful tiger reserves like Tadoba, Kanha, Pench-MP, or Ranthambhore, no amount of external protection or linear infrastructure mitigation will effectively sustain a resident tiger population.” Andheria also highlights the compounding impact of regional infrastructure development, “While dispersing tigers are reaching Kawal and its neighbouring forests from Maharashtra, the high human dependence on these areas for NTFP collection and cattle grazing prevents them from establishing stable territories. Telangana’s very poor track record of enforcing the government guidelines for mitigation of linear infrastructure in case of most projects (NH44, NH63, three broad-gauge railway lines, and irrigation projects across the Painganga river) further creates a major impediment to the free movement of tigers and their prey.” Survival and broken promises Behind the ecological metrics of “inviolate space” and human disturbance lies a human tragedy that defines Kawal’s management crisis. For centuries, indigenous communities, including the Raj Gonds, Nayakpods, Kolams, Pardhans, Thotis, and Lambadas, have lived in harmony with the forest, relying on sustainable agriculture, grazing, and seasonal forest produce. When Kawal was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2012, authorities presented conservation not as an eviction force, but as a protective cover for both wildlife and Adivasi land rights. Local leader Siddam Bhujang Rao recalls those early promises with bitterness, saying, “The tiger zone was declared on the condition that it would not harm the Adivasis — neither our legal rights nor our survival,” says Siddam Bhujang Rao, a local Adivasi leader. “Initially, officials said forest protection would happen with us. But once the reserve was established, their stance completely shifted.” To clear the core area for big cats, forest authorities made plans to relocate villages. The official rehabilitation package promised ₹15 lakh (₹1.5 million) per adult or three acres of irrigated farmland, along with houses, schools, and water supply. In reality, the transition collapsed into neglect. Families relocated to resettlement sites like Madhya Padaga received unfinished houses and no farmland to cultivate. “They promised us land, water, and model villages,” says Rao. “Instead, families were moved to houses with crumbling plaster, and the agricultural lands were never handed over. When we try to farm our traditional lands to feed our families, cases are filed against us, people are thrown into jail, and trenches are dug across our footpaths to block us.” These restrictions have severely disrupted traditional Adivasi life. Local residents can no longer freely gather Mahua flowers, collect herbs for medicine, or graze their cattle. “Our culture, our gods, and our survival are all rooted in this forest,” says Rao. “Yet today, an Adivasi who has lived here for a hundred years is punished like a foreigner for cutting a branch. The government gives priority to wild animals over human beings, turning us into strange creatures on our own ancestral land.” The translocation debate With natural migration blocked by highways and mines, wildlife managers are increasingly floating a controversial alternative: “assisted dispersal,” or capturing wild female tigers from dense populations in Maharashtra and airlifting them directly into Kawal. While artificial translocation appears to solve the female bottleneck on paper, conservationists are deeply divided over whether dropping tigers into an unready, conflict-ridden landscape is viable. Aditya Panda, Member of the Standing Committee of the State Board for Wildlife, Odisha, argues that translocation is a necessary jumpstart given natural female dispersal limits, “Male tigers from the Tadoba landscape do end up in Kawal regularly, but female tigers are far less likely to arrive on their own due to population dynamics. Young males become long-distance dispersers, whereas females establish home ranges closer to their mothers. A female dispersing more than 50 km from her natal range is rare. Therefore, for recovered tiger habitats that are 100 km or further from the nearest source population, artificial translocation remains a tried, tested, and preferred method to kickstart a new population — provided landscape consolidation and corridor restoration are given their due in the long run.” However, Siddiqui cautions that manual translocation is extremely dangerous without prior corridor and habitat security: “Assisted dispersal is not a shortcut for fixing broken corridors,” warns Siddiqui. “The moment you release a translocated tiger, its instinct is to explore. If the surrounding habitat isn’t secure, that tiger will roam, drifting onto railway tracks, crossing busy highways, and wandering into villages. India has proven translocations can work, but only if you have four non-negotiables: a strong prey base, minimal human disturbance, soft releases, and relentless post-release tracking.” Independent conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra, former member of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife, adds that relying on translocations dilutes the accountability of corridor preservation, “Prey base and protection in themselves are not sufficient if the reserve is an island,” Bindra emphasises. “The vital corridors connecting Kawal with Tadoba and Tipeshwar have been severely fragmented by highways, railways, and mining. Not every linear project can be ‘mitigated’ with underpasses — important habitats and key corridors must remain sacrosanct. Airlifting tigers is a temporary band-aid, not a substitute for protecting their natural habitats. Without intact, safe natural passages for continuous gene flow, isolated sink, we are knowingly writing off reserves like Kawal.” Coexistence at scale The translocation debate brings Kawal back to its fundamental contradiction: can a reserve succeed by alienating the humans who share its borders? Kathan Bandyopadhyay, co-author of the 12-year Kawal study, warns that translocating animals without securing movement paths creates a highly precarious sink, “Protecting habitat and prey within Kawal alone may not be enough if tigers cannot move between Kawal and surrounding forests. Translocating tigers into an isolated reserve without restoring these corridors could leave a small, disconnected population vulnerable to inbreeding, conflict, and local extinction.” This ecological reality converges directly with Siddam Bhujang Rao’s warnings from the ground. For the Adivasis, forcibly introducing apex predators into a forest where local people are already struggling for basic survival guarantees disaster for both humans and tigers. “Bringing tigers from outside will not work,” says Rao. “A tiger moved to a new forest doesn’t know where to find prey or water, so it turns to livestock and humans out of hunger. Then people get killed, and eventually, the tiger dies too. Adivasis consider the tiger a deity — we do not hunt it. But if a tiger attacks our families, fear changes everything. Dropping wild animals here to solve a problem on paper will only cost human and tiger lives. It is a flawed idea, and it should be abandoned.” Kawal has successfully restored its forest cover and prey populations, but the reserve remains isolated. Until physical corridors are reconnected and local Adivasi communities are included as real partners, Kawal will remain a reserve without a resident tiger population. Banner image: A tiger in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, from where tigers move to Kawal Tiger Reserve but do not live there. Representative image by A.J.T Johnsingh, WWF-India & NCF via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).