22 Tigers 'Missing' in AP's NSTR Amid Fears of Large-Scale Poaching

Hyderabad:The Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) in Andhra Pradesh may be sitting on an explosive powder keg of tiger poaching amidst reports that 22 big cats that were counted in the last All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) in 2022, and during an unofficial census in 2023-24,have gone missing.

Multiple sources confirmed to Deccan Chronicle that this year’s Phase IV monitoring as part of the 2026 AITE did not get a single image of the 22 tigers whose pictures were captured by camera traps during the 2022 exercise. These big cats were also captured by camera traps in an unofficial tiger census that the NSTR officials undertook in 2023-24, the sources said.

The latest information, shared by well-informed sources in Andhra Pradesh, came in the wake of back-to-back deaths of two tigers in the NSTR over a period of three days.

While one tiger was found dead on July 28, a day before the International Tiger Day, in the Nandikotkur forests in Nandyal district, another was found dead, its legs missing, in the Racharla forest beat of the Gundlakamma range in Markapuram district, also in the same tiger reserve on July 31.

Sources said there were attempts in the past by NSTR staff to cover up tiger deaths, notably a case in 2021 when a tiger was found electrocuted — again in the Nandyal range – but its body was thrown into a canal by some forest department staff who reportedly tried to pass it off as a case of death by drowning, despite the fact that tigers are excellent swimmers.

Five forest department staff were suspended in that incident for their complicity in trying to cover up the cause of the tiger’s death.

“We now fear that there is no monitoring, or tiger protection activity in NSTR. That 22 tigers were ‘missed’ or failed to be captured in camera trap images during the latest AITE is more in evidence of well-planned and organised poaching of tigers rather than the missing animals moving elsewhere,” a source said.

Another source said the case of NSTR needed a strong response from the National Tiger Conservation Authority and a thorough investigation into the missing tigers.

The sources also added that just in the last two years, the tiger reserve saw four different officials being posted as field directors. “There is enormous political pressure on forest department when it comes to NSTR, this could be one of the reasons why there are problems there,” the source added.

While the official count of tigers in NSTR after the 2018 AITE was 48, their numbers rose to 58 in the 2022 AITE. In 2024, the tiger numbers in the reserve were reported to be 87. With 22 now not being captured on cameras, the tigers are said to have disappeared in the last two years, the fears are that tiger numbers might plummet when the figures of this year’s tiger estimation are released.

It may be recalled that a nationwide investigation into poaching of tigers in March 2025, had traced digital transactions totalling around `8 crore with one transaction traced to Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.