IWN Report — Monday, 8 June 2026
A camera trap installed during a routine wildlife survey in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district has photographed a caracal — India’s most critically endangered wild cat — for the first time in decades. The images were shared on World Environment Day (5 June) by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav, who described the sighting as evidence of the park’s ecological richness and the positive outcomes of the state’s wildlife conservation efforts. The development has been widely reported across national and international media.
The sighting is remarkable. What it means for the species is more complicated.
What is a caracal — and why does India’s population matter
The caracal (Caracal caracal) is a medium-sized wild cat, immediately recognisable by its long, black-tufted ears, reddish-fawn coat, and the distinctive dark markings on its face. It is one of the fastest cats in the world relative to its size, capable of leaping over two metres into the air to catch birds in flight — a feat that earned it its Persian name karakulak, meaning “black ear.” Across its global range — Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Central and South Asia — the species is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. In India, the picture is sharply different.
In India, the caracal is considered critically endangered, with fewer than 50 individuals estimated to survive across the entire country — making it the second cat species after the Asiatic cheetah to reach the brink of extinction here. The two known populations are in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan (estimated at around 28 individuals in a 2015 study) and in Kutch, Gujarat (around 20). The species is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, affording it the highest level of legal protection. The National Board for Wildlife and MoEFCC included the caracal in their 2021 Species Recovery Plan for 22 endangered species. The Ranthambore-Kuno Landscape has been specifically identified as a critical conservation corridor for caracal population recovery.
The caracal is a solitary, nocturnal predator of dry grasslands, scrublands, rocky areas, and open woodland — precisely the kind of habitat that the Kuno-Chambal landscape provides. It feeds on small mammals, birds, and reptiles, and can survive in landscapes with little water. Its ecological requirements make the Kuno region plausible habitat, and a Chambal river swimming photograph taken in Madhya Pradesh in 2024 — documented by Mongabay India — had already hinted at the animal’s continued presence in the landscape.
The Kuno sighting — what is confirmed
The photographs were captured during a camera trap survey in Kuno National Park. The Madhya Pradesh government has confirmed the sighting as occurring after “several decades” without recorded presence of the species in the park. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Madhya Pradesh, Subharanjan Sen, described the sighting as “an important development” and “a matter of great pride for the state.” The state government has cited it as evidence that Project Cheetah’s ecological transformation of Kuno — through habitat improvement, prey base management, and reduced human disturbance — is producing benefits beyond the cheetah itself.
The specific location within Kuno where the caracal was recorded, the number of individuals photographed, and whether the animal was resident or transient have not been confirmed publicly. A single camera trap image of a caracal is not equivalent to a population survey — it indicates presence, not establishment.
What the experts say — and why caution matters
In August 2025, when a caracal was photographed in a similar camera trap survey at the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, conservation biologist Dharmendra Khandal of Tiger Watch offered a note of caution that applies equally to the Kuno sighting. “A sighting offers a clue, not a sign of recovery,” Khandal told Mongabay India, noting that the species’ presence in a landscape is not new — it is the absence of systematic survey data that makes its true status difficult to assess. A single camera trap record, however significant as an indicator of ecological health, does not tell us whether a breeding population exists, how many individuals are present, or whether the species is moving through the landscape or resident within it.
The broader challenge for caracal conservation in India is structural. The species inhabits the same dry grasslands and scrublands that the Indian government has historically classified as “wasteland” — a designation that has accelerated their conversion to agriculture, plantations, and development. Unlike the tiger or the elephant, the caracal has no dedicated reserve network and no formally protected core habitat of its own. Its recovery, if it is to happen, will depend on the conservation of open landscapes that have long been undervalued in India’s protected area system.
The significance — and what comes next
The Kuno sighting is significant for two reasons that deserve to be separated. The first is what it says about Kuno: that a landscape which has been intensively managed for cheetah reintroduction over the past four years has retained — or regained — the ecological conditions necessary to support one of India’s rarest predators. That is a genuine signal of habitat quality. The second is what it says about the caracal: very little that wasn’t already known. The animal was always likely present somewhere in the Kuno-Chambal-Ranthambore landscape. A camera trap image confirms presence. It does not confirm recovery.
What would move the needle on caracal conservation in India is systematic survey work — camera trap grids across known and potential habitat, population estimation using occupancy modelling, and a management plan for the grassland and scrubland landscapes on which the species depends. The 2021 Species Recovery Plan names the caracal. The substantive work of implementing it, in a landscape where the species can actually survive and breed, remains ahead.
Sources: The Statesman · The Star · Mongabay India (caracal extinction risk, 2023) · Mongabay India (Gandhi Sagar, August 2025) · IUCN Cat Specialist Group · Mongabay (Chambal swimming, May 2024)