BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s big cat numbers seem to be on a rise with 32 unique individual tigers being camera trapped in Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) this year.
PCCF (wildlife) Prem Kumar Jha told mediapersons on Tuesday that Similipal has recorded a rise in its tiger count since the previous AITE exercise in 2022 in which the tiger population in the state was pegged at 20.
Following AITE 2022, the Odisha government had carried out its own tiger estimation in 2023-24 which had put the state’s tiger count at 30 including 27 in STR.
“However, the camera trap exercise carried out subsequently has recorded 32 unique individual tigers in Similipal alone,” Jha said.
Sharing more details in this regard with TNIE, a wildlife wing official said the STR management had carried out the camera trap exercise between December 2024 and January 2025 during which 32 unique individual tigers of age above one year were recorded in the reserve.
“The figure includes 19 melanistic and 13 normal tigers. Around 600 camera traps were used in the exercise in which we also found presence of at least nine cubs,” the officer said.
15,000 camera traps put up in Similipal tiger reserve for AITE-2026
He clarified that the 32 unique individual tigers do not include the two big cats translocated to Similipal from Maharashtra’s Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) last year. “This statistics is an indication of the growing tiger population in the Similipal landscape.
As around 1,500 camera traps have been planned to be used in the landscape for the AITE 2026 and the survival rate among the cubs has usually been around 50 per cent, we expect a further encouraging figure in the census,” the officer said.
As it is, the first phase of AITE 2026, carried out by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) across the country, has already been launched in the state to determine the current population and distribution of big cats in the landscape. The phase-I exercise was first launched in Similipal on November 15 to record evidence of big cats, herbivores and other carnivores.
While Odisha doesn’t have much role in phase-II, camera traps in the third phase will be installed in forests across the state from December. Around 3,500 to 4,000 camera traps will be used in the protected areas including Similipal, Satkosia and Debrigarh as part of the exercise, which is expected to be completed by June 2026.