Disagreeing with the findings of the All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2022 report, the Chief Minister of Odisha, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, took to X on February 26 to inform that Odisha ha sten more Royal Bengal tigers and eight cubs than what was reported by the AITE. 

The AITE report 2022 published that there were only 20 Royal Bengal tigers in Odisha – which made CM Patnaik order an indigenous tiger census (by the state government itself) in the wild habitats between October 15, 2023 and February 10, 2024, which discovered the presence of at least “30 Royal Bengal tigers and eight cubs”.

A forest official explained how the extensive Odisha tiger estimation program was conducted across 47 forest divisions, each being intrinsically monitored by forest rangers who examined these habitats for signs of the feline giant such as pugmarks, scrapes, scats, rakes, urine spray, vocalisation and livestock depredation. The officials used the state-of-the-art camera-trap image-based identification to identify as many as 27 unique adult tigers (14 females and 13 males), and the presence of three more adult tigers was found in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR).

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In STR alone, the number of distinct adult tigers had increased from 16 to 27 within the last two years – an extremely laudable growth resulting from strict management actions and scientific conservation practices by the forest officials in Odisha.