Rajasthan forms probe committee after 25 tigers go missing from Ranthambore National Park

An internal report has claimed 25 tigers went missing from Ranthambore National Park, which is one of the largest tiger habitats of the country.

The information about the tigers going missing has been coming for a long time, admitted Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Pavan Kumar Upadhyay.

The committee will submit the probe report to Upadhyay.

Upadhyay said as quoted by The Indian Express, "When I became the Chief Wildlife Warden, I started studying the Tiger Monitoring Reports. I wrote the first letter in this regard in April 2024…but the answer was not satisfactory."

Upadhyay, however, says the decrease in the number of tigers doesn't mean they are killed or poached but there can be a lot of reasons.

He said, "It could be that maybe they aren’t being captured in the camera trap. We collect evidence in three ways: one is pugmarks, the second is direct sighting and the third is camera trap, with the last two being most reliable. So, if they are not being spotted, then maybe the tigers are in such a spot where they aren’t being spotted, or that they may have migrated to a different spot.

"Some of our tigers go to Kuno while some come here from there. We are not ruling out any possibility, and the committee’s report will make it clear."