BHUBANESWAR: The number of tigers in the Similipal landscape has risen to 35, according to the latest camera-trap estimation carried out by the Forest department.
Sources said the findings have already been communicated to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Confirming the development, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden Prem Kumar Jha told The New Indian Express that the recent camera-trap exercise identified 35 unique adult tigers in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR).
The latest estimate reflects a steady rise in Similipal’s tiger population. The All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2022 had placed the reserve’s tiger population at 16, while the Odisha government’s own estimation in 2023-24 recorded 27 tigers.
A subsequent camera-trap exercise conducted between December 2024 and January 2025 had identified 32 unique tigers aged above one year.
Of the 35, 17 are males and 18 females. The count includes Jamuna and Zeenat, the two tigers translocated from Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in 2024 under the tiger supplementation programme aimed at improving the reserve’s genetic diversity.
Jha attributed the increase to intensified protection measures, habitat improvement and prey-base augmentation undertaken in STR over the last few years.
He said the tiger supplementation project has also begun yielding results. The number of cubs in Similipal has also increased from 12 to 16, indicating healthy breeding within the reserve. This number includes four cubs from Zeenat.
Officials said 19 of the 35 adult tigers recorded in the latest estimation are pseudo-melanistic, reflecting the high prevalence of the rare genetic trait associated with the population.
Wildlife authorities are preparing a proposal to bring one male and one female tiger from the Central Indian landscape to further strengthen genetic diversity of the Similipal population.
The proposal will be submitted to the state government and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for approval.