SAMBALPUR: The encouraging results of the tiger supplementation project in Similipal Tiger Reserve have given Odisha a fresh conservation impetus. As the state looks to secure its tiger population for the future, the next course of action could lie in expanding its network of tiger reserves (TRs).
Currently, the state has two TRs, and the last one was notified as far back as 2007. Experts believe this is as good a time as any to create more protected areas for the big cats in the state, and the beginning could be made with Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary.
Nearly eight months after an expert committee submitted its recommendations to the Odisha government, the Debrigarh TR proposal remains under consideration. Wildlife Wing officials say the proposal has steadily progressed through multiple stages, though the final notification still awaits completion of procedural formalities.
It was almost two decades ago, in 2007, that Satkosia was notified as Odisha’s second tiger reserve. Between 2007 and 2026, India added 30 more reserves, but Odisha’s number has remained static at two. With the plan for Sunabeda as a TR almost abandoned, Debrigarh is all the more significant in the state’s long-term conservation roadmap.
The timing is significant. Similipal’s supplementation programme has demonstrated that scientific management, habitat protection, habitat improvement as well as sustained investment can work in building tiger populations. Conservationists believe Odisha now has an opportunity to replicate that success by securing other ecologically important landscapes capable of supporting tigers and strengthening habitat connectivity. Among them, Debrigarh has emerged as one of the state’s most promising conservation landscapes.
Over the last few years, the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary has undergone a remarkable ecological transformation through habitat restoration, village relocation, strengthened protection measures and growing wildlife populations.
According to Dr Anup Nayak, former member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and chairman of the expert committee constituted by the Odisha government, Debrigarh occupies a strategically important position by linking the tiger-bearing forests of the Central India landscape with Odisha.
The landscape serves as an ecological corridor facilitating the movement of tigers, leopards, dholes, elephants, gaur and several prey species, allowing genetic exchange and strengthening ecological resilience across eastern and central India.
The expert committee observed that Debrigarh’s importance extends beyond sustaining a resident tiger population. While the landscape may not independently support a viable breeding population because of its size, declaring it a tiger reserve would secure a crucial wildlife corridor and facilitate dispersal of tigers into Odisha, strengthening the state’s long-term conservation strategy.
The proposed reserve spans around 804 sq km, comprising the entire 353 sq km Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary as the core and around 450 sq km of buffer covering 54 villages besides the Dechuan and Sarraidamak-Budharaja Reserve Forest corridors. There are at least 10 TRs whose size is comparable to Debrigarh’s or even smaller. Hence, size does not really matter.
Debrigarh’s greatest strength is its extensive inviolate habitat. Following the relocation of all villages from inside the sanctuary during 2021-22, the core area is now completely free of human habitation, creating one of Odisha’s most suitable landscapes for large carnivores. The expert committee noted that even Similipal and Satkosia are yet to achieve complete relocation from their core areas.
Tiger reserve status would provide a dedicated institutional framework for habitat improvement, prey management, scientific monitoring, anti-poaching operations and corridor protection. It would also ensure better management of the buffer zone, reducing anthropogenic pressures while promoting community participation in conservation. Even without tiger reserve status, Debrigarh has continued to strengthen its ecological credentials. The sanctuary is poised to become Odisha’s first Gaur National Park after the gaur population rose from 659 to 788 within six months, including 315 juveniles and 128 newborns. A proposal in this regard is with the Department of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Odisha government. As per the proposal, the Forest Department has identified 290.65 sq km of the sanctuary for notification as the Gaur National Park.
Habitat transformation has been one of Debrigarh’s biggest conservation achievements. Around nine per cent of the protected area is now covered by meadows, significantly improving forage availability for herbivores and enhancing the prey base required for large carnivores. Protection measures have also been strengthened considerably over the years. The sanctuary has expanded anti-poaching surveillance, increased field patrolling and encouraged greater participation of local communities in wildlife protection.
Forest officials say community involvement has become one of the key pillars of conservation in Debrigarh’s management strategy. An interesting example is Satya Sahu, once convicted in the 2018 electrocution death of a tiger, who now serves as a member of Debrigarh’s protection squad, pointing to the changing conservation ethos around the sanctuary.
The proposal for the tiger reserve itself has steadily gained institutional backing. After the Odisha government first proposed Debrigarh as a TR in 2018, the NTCA accorded in-principle approval in February 2023. In 2025, the three-member expert committee headed by Dr Nayak carried out detailed field verification and recommended notifying the entire sanctuary as the core with a buffer comprising 56 villages.
The committee also recorded that all families were relocated from the proposed core area by March 2022 and that rights under the Forest Rights Act had been settled through joint gram sabhas of the Forest and Revenue departments. It further observed that Debrigarh had created one of Odisha’s largest inviolate habitats suitable for long-term conservation planning. Even Similipal and Satkosia have not achieved 100 per cent relocation till date.
Meanwhile, Debrigarh has recorded periodic tiger presence. Five tigers were estimated in the landscape during the 2004 census, while a dispersing male from Chhattisgarh’s Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve visited the sanctuary in December 2022 before returning to Chhattisgarh, where it was later killed by poachers.
However, declaration of the tiger reserve by the state government will require the conduct of gram sabhas in 56 buffer villages to seek their consent. Also, declaration of a tiger reserve requires the imposition of a number of restrictions in the buffer zone. Given Debrigarh’s location and the region’s growing development and infrastructure priorities, it would require the Forest Department to walk a tightrope.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Wildlife, and Chief Wildlife Warden Prem Kumar Jha agrees. He says the socio-economic conditions of the area need to be taken into consideration prior to implementation of the project. “The state government will take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time,” the Chief Wildlife Warden says. The Forest Department also announced plans in 2024 to translocate one male and two female tigers from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. While the Similipal supplementation programme proposed around the same period has since moved ahead, the Debrigarh translocation has not taken off, with the TR notification still pending.
Jha says Debrigarh holds great potential to become a tiger reserve in the near future. However, considering its area, all required safeguards need to be put in place prior to the introduction of tigers into the relatively small landscape, he points out.
Conservationists feel this could be the right time to position Debrigarh as the state’s third TR. “Similipal’s genetic rescue project showed that calculated risks can pay rich dividends if scientific conservation methods are adopted and backed by the government. Debrigarh presents the perfect template given its evolution as one of the state’s finest wildlife habitats in the last few years. From both conservation and eco-tourism perspectives, this is the time to step forward with the TR notification,” said an expert.
Odisha tiger network
2 tiger reserves currently
Similipal (1973)
Satkosia (2007)
No new tiger reserve in 19 years
Proposed Debrigarh Tiger Reserve
Total area: ~804 sq km
Core: 353 sq km (entire wildlife sanctuary)
Buffer: ~450 sq km
56 villages in proposed buffer
Debrigarh’s conservation gains
100% relocation from core area completed (2021–22)
Around 9% of sanctuary converted into meadows
One of Odisha’s largest inviolate habitats
Gaur population on the rise
659 to 788 gaur in six months
315 juveniles, 128 newborns
Proposal pending for first Gaur National Park
(With inputs from Sudarsan Maharana)