November brings a welcome nip to the air in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh. Twenty minutes into a morning safari, a jeep travelling along a muddy track beside a canal comes to an abrupt halt. “A tiger just jumped into the canal,” announces another driver. The nearest bridge is five minutes away. Engines roar as the jeeps race towards the crossing, raising clouds of dust. Ten minutes later, they are scanning the muddy banks on the other side. Has the tiger crossed already? Just then, it emerges, unhurried and seemingly oblivious to the waiting vehicles. It walks down the track, pauses to sniff the air, turns towards the cameras and disappears into the forest.
It is an impressive introduction to Pilibhit, a lesser-known wilderness on India’s wildlife tourism map. Located along the India-Nepal border, the reserve is part of the Terai belt of forests, grasslands and wetlands. Notified as India’s 46th tiger reserve in 2014, it has since become a conservation success story. “The Terai is very fertile, with high water tables. Historically, it supported luxuriant vegetation because the land was always damp, moist and slushy. Grasslands dominated, especially elephant grass and other tall species that thrive in waterlogged areas,” says Lakshminarayanan Natarajan, scientist and conservationist associated with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Sal forests cover nearly 76 per cent of the reserve, interspersed with grasslands and marshes. The Gomti originates here, and its habitats support five of India’s seven deer species and around 450 bird species, including the critically endangered Bengal florican, according to the NTCA.
Pilibhit is also part of a transboundary forest corridor linking India and Nepal. Its forests connect it to Corbett, Dudhwa, Kishanpur and Nepal’s Shuklaphanta National Park, allowing wildlife to move across the landscape. The NTCA-WII’s 2010 assessment estimated 106-118 tigers across the larger Dudhwa-Kheri-Pilibhit landscape.
Conservation efforts have transformed the reserve. Its estimated tiger population rose from 25 in 2014 to 65 in 2018, a 2.6-fold increase. In 2020, Pilibhit received the inaugural international TX2 award for doubling its tiger population ahead of the global 2022 target. Habitat restoration, grassland improvement, technology-assisted monitoring and anti-poaching measures contributed to the turnaround. The 2022 national tiger assessment identified 63 individual tigers within the reserve through camera trapping.
The gains have also attracted tourists. Visitor numbers climbed from 14,182 in 2014-15 to 56,783 in 2025-26, including 216 foreign tourists. “Pilibhit is still less familiar than Corbett and Ranthambore, but the number of photographers and serious wildlife enthusiasts is growing. The tiger remains the biggest draw, though many also come for the birds,” says Rajeev, a local guide. Pilibhit’s tigers have also ventured beyond the forest. In 2012, a tigress moved into the sugarcane fields of Amariya, around 30 km away, established a territory and raised cubs. Others followed, giving rise to the so-called Amariya or farm tigers. By 2021, forest officials had reported at least eight tigers and nine cubs in the area.
“When sugarcane grows tall, it provides good cover for tigers. They can move through the fields without being easily spotted,” says Kishan, a local farmer. The proximity brings risks. A 2022 study in Frontiers in Conservation Science documented 118 incidents involving people around Pilibhit and Dudhwa between 2003 and 2018. Of these, 43.2 per cent occurred in agricultural fields, primarily sugarcane, and 44.9 per cent inside forests.
The forest department has identified 72 conflict-prone villages around Pilibhit. Measures include solar and chain-link fencing, Rapid Response Teams and the Bagh Mitra initiative, which trains village volunteers to report wildlife movement. “If someone spots pugmarks, we verify them and alert forest staff on WhatsApp. This helps prevent the animal from being harmed. Since we belong to these villages, people trust us,” says Adnan Khan, a Bagh Mitra. With the 2026-27 tourism season opening on November 1, Pilibhit is gearing up for another wave of visitors. Tigers may be the biggest draw, but the reserve also offers swamp deer in marshlands, fish eagles carrying off their catch, owls hooting in daylight and hornbills calling from the canopy.
A decade after gaining tiger reserve status, Pilibhit is coming into its own. Rising tiger numbers, rich biodiversity and community-led conservation are putting this lesser-known Terai wilderness firmly on the map.