IWN Report — Wednesday, 13 May 2026
A new field report from Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, finds a thriving tiger and leopard population in a forest that is not a tiger reserve, not a national park, and not protected in any formal sense. The findings are remarkable. So is the problem buried within them.
The report, Status of Large Carnivores and Wild Ungulates in North and South Balaghat Forest Divisions, was published on 12 May 2026 by WWF-India in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department. Authored by Dr Deepti Gupta, Harshit Saxena, Sanket Bhale, Ankur Gautam, Dr Suvankar Biswas, and Dr Pranav Chanchani, it presents data from camera trap and line transect surveys conducted in November and December 2021 as part of the All India Tiger Estimation 2022 monitoring exercise.
What Balaghat is — and why that matters
Balaghat is a territorial forest — ordinary revenue forest — spread across approximately 9,232 sq km in Madhya Pradesh. It is not fenced, not notified as a tiger reserve, and not managed with the resources that flow to protected areas. It sits between two of India’s most celebrated tiger landscapes: Kanha Tiger Reserve to the northeast and Pench Tiger Reserve to the southwest. Between them, Balaghat forms the Kanha-Pench wildlife corridor — the forest bridge through which tigers disperse into lower-density landscapes including the Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.
In 2018, Balaghat was designated one of WWF’s global TX2 recovery sites — a programme committed to doubling wild tiger numbers. It remains the only non-protected area in the world to carry that designation. Since 2010, WWF-India has operated its Interim Relief Scheme (IRS) here, compensating communities for livestock killed by wild predators and supporting coexistence.
The 2026 report is a follow-up to an earlier WWF-India assessment covering 2014–2017. Its purpose is to document where the population stands now, and what the forest needs to sustain it.
The numbers
In November 2021, 71 camera traps were deployed across 215 sq km in the Lalbarra and Katangi ranges of South Balaghat for 25 days. The results are striking for a territorial forest.
Eighteen individual tigers were identified — 12 of whom were recaptured on multiple occasions, confirming residency rather than transience. Breeding signs were recorded at two locations. These are not animals passing through; they are animals that have established territory. Twenty-seven individual leopards were also identified, including breeding pairs.
Tiger density in the survey area was estimated at 3.72 ± 1.01 individuals per 100 sq km; leopard density at 6.67 ± 2.04 individuals per 100 sq km. Estimated abundance across the survey zone was 31 tigers and 41 leopards.
At the landscape level, the Balaghat circle as a whole supports a minimum of 49 tigers above one year of age, at a density of 1.77 individuals per 100 sq km — a figure drawn from the All India Tiger Estimation 2022.
Twenty-four mammal species were photo-captured in South Balaghat’s two ranges alone. The list includes dhole, Indian wolf, jackal, sloth bear, honey badger, gaur, sambar, chital, nilgai, barking deer, chousingha, and porcupine — a mammalian community that would do credit to many protected areas.
Line transect surveys covering 788 km in North Balaghat and 1,034 km in South Balaghat found prey densities of 59.06 ± 3.3 individuals per sq km in the north and 125.16 ± 7.79 in the south. Among ungulates, chital was the most abundant species, followed by wild pig. South Balaghat’s densities of wild pig and barking deer exceed estimates from both Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves.
The paradox at the centre of the report
The carnivore numbers are, by any measure, a conservation success story. The report’s authors are careful to say so — and equally careful to flag what lies beneath them.
Prey densities in Balaghat remain well below those recorded in Kanha and Pench. Sambar, chital, and gaur — the preferred prey of tigers — are present at low densities across both divisions. The prey base has not recovered at the pace of the predators. And the consequence of that gap is documented in striking terms: an unpublished WWF-India study found that over 50% of the diet of tigers in the Kanha-Pench Corridor — which significantly overlaps the Balaghat divisions — comprises livestock.
The report frames this plainly as a “critical conservation paradox.” Carnivore populations are recovering. But because wild prey is insufficient to sustain them, tigers are increasingly turning to domestic animals. That, in turn, raises the risk of human-wildlife conflict and retaliatory killing — precisely the threat that a recovering population can least afford.
Leopards yielding to tigers — and what that signals
A striking spatial pattern emerged from the camera trap data. Tiger and leopard density maps show an inverse relationship: areas with the highest tiger densities have the lowest leopard densities, and vice versa. In Lalbarra, tigers dominated; in Katangi, leopards were more active and tigers less so. Three male leopards were recorded at the same Katangi location, suggesting tightly overlapping territories in a range tigers largely cede to them.
The report notes that competitive exclusion of leopards by tigers has been documented in earlier studies. It also flags that the jackal was the only other carnivore that consistently shared space with leopards in the survey area.
364 bird species — and three of conservation concern
The report documents 364 bird species recorded from the Balaghat district, of which 118 are migratory, 11 are threatened, and 7 are endemic. Three species are of particular conservation significance: the Indian vulture (Gyps indicus, Critically Endangered), the black-bellied tern (Endangered), and the sarus crane (Vulnerable). Balaghat has been identified as an important area of conservation significance for these species in the Madhya Pradesh State Action Plan for Avifauna.
A new conservation reserve — and what it could become
The Madhya Pradesh State Wildlife Board has recently approved the designation of 163.195 sq km of South Balaghat’s Lalbarra range as the Sonewani Conservation Reserve — a new protected area designed to secure tiger movement and prey habitat while formally recognising community use rights over the forest.
The report describes Sonewani as an opportunity to build something new: a model for community-integrated conservation outside traditional protected area boundaries that could be replicated across MP and beyond. The management plan, it recommends, should be developed jointly with local communities — Gond and Baiga Adivasi groups make up 22.5% of Balaghat’s 1.7 million people, and their livelihoods are closely tied to the forest through agriculture, livestock, and the collection of non-timber forest produce including mahua, tendu leaves, and sal seeds.
The threats that could undo all of this
The report identifies four pressures bearing down on Balaghat’s forests, and is direct about each.
Mining. Balaghat holds the Malanjkhand copper mine — the largest single copper deposit in India — and the Bharveli manganese mine, described as the largest underground manganese mine in Asia. Both sit adjacent to the forest. The report recommends that no new mining blocks be allocated in critical wildlife habitat or movement areas; that associated infrastructure such as townships and washeries be located outside the forest; and that ore transportation be banned between sunset and sunrise to protect nocturnal wildlife.
Linear infrastructure. Approximately 77 km of National Highway 543 bisects Balaghat’s forest habitat, along with multiple state highways and the Jabalpur–Balaghat–Gondia railway line. The report notes that increasing road traffic and train speeds directly threaten wildlife movement, and calls for site-specific mitigation in accordance with NTCA and WII guidelines whenever upgradation projects come up for forest clearance.
Invasive species. Lantana camara, Parthenium hysterophorus, and other invasives have spread significantly across both divisions, driven by roads, mining, agriculture, and cattle grazing. The report urges early removal before the problem scales further, while noting that Lantana in particular requires ecosystem-specific management experiments rather than generic eradication attempts.
Fire. Balaghat is classified as highly fire-vulnerable by the Forest Survey of India. The report recommends enhanced monitoring of the existing fire alert system, fire-line maintenance, and community engagement for early reporting.
What the report asks for
The central policy ask is clear: Balaghat should be designated a priority region under NTCA’s Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (ToTR) programme, which provides dedicated funds and management support for tiger habitats outside the notified reserve network. As a territorial forest, Balaghat currently cannot access the resources that flow to protected areas — despite supporting carnivore densities and mammalian diversity that many reserves would be glad to claim.
The report also calls for expansion of camera trap monitoring to all ranges (the 2021 survey covered only two ranges of South Balaghat); a rapid-response compensation mechanism for crop damage; strengthened community governance through JFMCs and Forest Rights Act committees; and regular monitoring of livestock kills to track conflict hotspots.
Balaghat, the authors conclude, validates that territorial forests can deliver conservation outcomes comparable to protected areas — when they receive the scientific engagement, management investment, and community partnership they deserve.
Note: The camera trap and line transect data in this report were collected in November–December 2021 as part of the All India Tiger Estimation 2022 monitoring exercise. The report was published by WWF-India on 12 May 2026.