Prey Decline Fuels Tiger-Human Conflict in East India

To revive prey populations, the report recommends on-site breeding of chital and sambar in secure enclosures designed to keep out predators Even as India celebrates a rise in its tiger population, a new national assessment has flagged an emerging conservation challenge: some of the prey species that sustain these big cats — chital (spotted deer), sambar (large deer), and the vulnerable gaur (Indian bison) — are declining across key tiger landscapes in east-central India, particularly in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

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These findings come from a first-of-its-kind assessment of ungulates (hoofed mammals) conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), using data from India’s 2022 tiger census. Ungulates form the bulk of a tiger’s diet and are also critical to the forest ecosystem. Yet, across tiger habitats in these regions, they are facing increasing pressure from loss of habitat due to deforestation, development, agricultural expansion, urbanisation, human-wildlife conflict, and subsistence hunting.

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Prey Loss, Conflict, and Unrest Threaten Wildlife in Eastern India

The report points to the broader consequences, drawing a direct link between low prey numbers and human-wildlife conflict. “High bushmeat consumption and civil unrest in the region negatively impact wildlife presence, leading to low ungulate densities,” the report notes on Odisha. “Palamau (in Jharkhand), an important part of the Central Indian corridor, faces challenges such as Left Wing Extremism, which affects wildlife presence,” it says. However, even as eastern and central Indian states are seeing prey depletion, several other landscapes show healthier trends.

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The report also identifies strongholds of prey abundance. Chital populations were found thriving across clusters like Rajaji-Corbett-Ramnagar-Pilibhit-Dudhwa (Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh), Kanha-Pench-Achanakmar (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh), Bandhavgarh-Sanjay Dubri-Veerangana Durgawati (Madhya Pradesh), and the Nagarhole-Bandipur-BRT-Wayanad-Mudumalai-Sathyamangalam landscape (Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu). These clusters span diverse forest types — from the Terai-Duar savannas to the moist deciduous forests of Central and Southern India.