Pilibhit Tiger Reserve introduces new method to count tigers by gender

PILIBHIT: The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) has carried out a sex-based estimation of tigers in its core forest area, finding 14 males and 53 females. The gender of 12 tigers could not be determined due to unclear stripe patterns in images captured by camera traps, the officials said on Thursday.The internal estimation began in Nov last year, with the 602 sq km core forest divided into 316 grids of 2x2 km each. A total of 632 camera traps were installed in two phases, and the data was downloaded in March by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) experts. Over four months, the images were analysed and matched to identify individual tigers.The exercise showed an increase of eight tigers compared to the 71 counted in the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s 2022 national estimation.As per protocol, the internal survey excluded around 30–40% of PTR’s tigers, which often stay in agricultural fields in nearby villages due to the reserve’s overpopulation. “If we include these stray tigers, the total population in Pilibhit could be close to 100,” said divisional forest officer Manish Singh.Singh added that the survey confirmed an ideal male-to-female ratio of 1:3–4. “The salient finding was that some male tigers travelled over 70–80 km, which is unusual for this reserve,” he said.