Missing Tigers: NTCA Slams AP Forest Dept After DC Exposé, Orders Probe

Hyderabad:The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for all practical purposes has come down heavily on the AP forest department and the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NTSR) authorities for their laxity in tiger protection, pointing out several issues that are undermining the safety of the big cats in the reserve.

The missive came following an emergency inspection of NSTR by NTCA officials following the Deccan Chronicle report on 22 tigers going missing in the reserve.

In a letter dated August 3, C.M. Shivakumar, inspector general of forests, from the NTCA’s regional office in Bengaluru hammered home the fact that NSTR operated with a 71-per cent vacancies in posts, and that of the required 200 anti-poaching camps, only 91 were operational. “This shortfall may adversely affect protection and surveillance in the tiger reserve,” the letter said.

The AP forest department, meanwhile, in a rejoinder to the report, said there was no truth that 22 missing tigers may have been poached. It claimed that some of them may have dispersed, and that there was no official evidence of poaching.

However, this fell far short of facts with the department itself announcing that the latest tiger death in Giddalur range of NSTR, on July 31, was the result of organised poaching, with the big cat having been shot dead, and that seven persons were arrested in the case.

The NTCA letter also said that before the NSTR authorities come to any conclusions “regarding the status of individual tigers”, they should complete comprehensive analysis of the Phase-III camera trap data. This part of the 2026 All India Tiger Estimation in NSTR was completed some five months ago, and it was around this time that officials first noticed that 22 tigers captured in the cameras in the years prior to the ongoing 2026 AITE were not found during the Phase-III work.

“It should not take five months for the data to be analysed,” a source well versed with the procedure told Deccan Chronicle.

On the missing 22 tigers, the NTCA said if the Phase-III analysis was completed at “the tiger reserve level,” then the status of these tigers “assumes serious significance and warrants a thorough investigation (emphasis by NTCA).”

The department also claimed that it was “committed to wildlife conservation,” and reporting based on anonymous sources without awaiting scientific findings could create unnecessary public panic, and “undermine the morale of frontline forest staff working under challenging conditions.”

Interestingly, the NTCA in a letter addressed to the AP Chief Secretary, dated as recently as this past May 25, flagged repeated transfers of field directors posted at NSTR, something the Deccan Chronicle report also mentioned.

“Such frequent changes adversely impact continuity in protection, habitat management, monitoring…. and implementation of long-term conservation strategies.” It further said “continuity of leadership is particularly critical for a landscape of this scale and ecological significance.”

By not allowing any official to continue as the field director for the prescribed three year period – a provision in the tripartite agreement between the NTCA, the AP government, and the Tiger Reserve Foundation – impact critical exercises such as the AITE, the letter to the Chief Secretary said.

The department claimed that some of the missing tigers may have occupied “areas beyond camera trap grids,” leading to the question as to why such gaps occured, and just how much of the tiger reserve was not monitored properly and left to its own devices.

Sources also doubled down on charges of neglect in tiger protection saying that NSTR had at least two tigers that had been going around with poacher’ snares around them, pointing to continued poaching of wildlife in the reserve.

The department, also reacting to Deccan Chronicle reports on the recent deaths of two tigers in the reserve, said they were independent and not related, adding that “it is incorrect to presume any connection between the two incidents until the investigations are completed.”

But nowhere did the report ‘2nd tiger dies in NSTR in 3 days’ impute that these two incidents were related. The deaths of the two tigers were reported as individual events that came to light within span of a few days and it was presumptuous on part of the department to say that a connection between the two incidents was suggested in the news report.