Panna Tiger Reserveâ¦ How Tigers were Recovered So Fast

Welcome 

“Case of Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya 

Pradesh, India :Why It Lost It‟s Tigers 

and How It Recovered Them so Fast” 

by 

R.Sreenivasa Murthy, 

Field Director, Panna Tiger Reserve

The Panna Story 

...

“Panna Turnaround Story” 

(Self Manifestation of Secure Environs)

Structure of Presentation: 

• Basic Facts of Panna TR 

• Why Panna Lost it‟s Tigers? 

• How Panna Recovered Them so Fast!!!

Basic Facts of Panna TR

India-Madhya Pradesh Forest Map

Madhya Pradesh Forest Map

Tiger distribution Map 2006

Panna Tiger Reserve Satellite Map

Panna Tiger Reserve Administrative Map

Panna Tiger Reserve…Facts: 

• Area…. 543 sq Km (PNP) Gangau …78 sq km 

• Located in Vindhyan Ranges (Panna& 

Chattarpur Districts) 

• Typical Table Top Topography (Talgoan, 

Hinauta and Ken valley) ….Major drainage 

towards north west joining Ken river which 

flows from south to north in the reserve. Part 

of Yamuna-Ganga basin


• Mean Annual Rain Fall ..1100mm 

• Dry Deciduous Teak forest with Kardhai, 

Khair and Mixed forests 

• Rich in herbivores (Sambhar, Cheetal, 

Chinkara, Four horned antelope , Neelgai etc) 

• Co-predators….Panther, Wild dog etc.,


• Panna‟s rise and fall happened in just a decade 

• It is a conflict ridden landscape…locals take 

pride in killing the animals. 

• Park does not have locals support.

Panna Landscape






Herbivores – Deer-Cheetal Male

Herbivores – Deer-Cheetal Female

Herbivores – Deer-Sambhar Male

Herbivores – Deer-Sambhar Female

Herbivores – Antilope- Neelgai (Male)

Herbivores – Antilope-Chinkara (Male)

Herbivores – Antilope-Chausingha (Male & Female)

How Panna Lost its Tigers?

Panna Tiger Reserve…How tigers Were Lost? 

• WII, Report (June 2009)… “due to external factors” 

• NTCA Report (2009)…“Poaching is the main 

culprit.” 

• Madhya Pradesh State Expert Committee 

Report…While the committee believes that the 

tigers were lost to poaching, it maintains that the 

population stress was the primary reason for tiger 

mothers ranging out and leaving the breeding area 

with their cubs. Once outside they became exposed 

to poaching”


• Madhya Pradesh State Expert Committee 

Report… In summary it can be concluded that 

there was no single factor that can be attributed to 

the loss of tigers in Panna. It was probably an 

unfortunate combination of biological population 

stress combined with poaching as well as 

management gaps…In Panna the situation was 

possibly made worse by the fact that three factors 

came into play at the same time ”


• Biological Reasons: 

‣ Last female tiger was lost in July 2006, but no 

immediate realization of all females being lost 

‣ Realization in 2008. By the time female tigers 

could be introduced it was too late.


• Managerial Reasons: 

‣ Management did not detect it. Independent 

agencies also could not point it out 

‣ Thus timely alerts could not emanate from within 

and without the system about this critical factor


• Security Reasons: 

‣ During dacoit infestation period (Mid-2007to 

Early-2008) security within the park was also too 

thin 

‣ Security out side the park was never thick

How It Was Recovered So Fast !!!

Panna Tiger Reserve… How Tigers were 

• Issues on 

Recovered So Fast !!! 

‣Staff Front…HR inputs 

‣Tiger Front…Monitoring based security 

‣Protection Front…Intelligence Cell 

‣Peoples Front…Continuous consultations 

and Panna Nature Camps

• 



• T1 and T2 (females) were brought to Panna 

respectively from Bhandhavgarh and Kanha 

TRs in March 2009 to rectify the skewed sex 

ratio favouring males (Soft Release)



• By that time the last Male also disappeared 

from the park. 

• Park management made a Tiger 

Reintroduction Project (Tiger Recovey Plan) 

with scientific inputs from WII, D.Doon.



• Six tigers (Two Male and Four Female 

including T1 and T2) were planned to 

reintroduced at Panna TR as a founder 

population. 

• Lot of thinking process and scientific inputs 

went into selecting a Male member. 

• To avoid the delay Male member was selected 

from altogether new population (Pench TR)



• Male tiger was brought from Pench TR on 6 th Nov 

2009. 

• He could not be radio collared due to tough 

terrain where he was tranquilized.



• Hence tranquilized for the second time on 13 th 

Nov at PTR and released on 14 th Nov 2009.



• He remained inside the park and went out of 

the park in the contiguous forests of 

Chattarpur, Sagar and Damoh. 

• Park management was determined not to 

loose any more tigers which will halt the entire 

tiger reintroduction process. 

• Hence followed him, secured him from gunshots, 

poisoning and electrocution.



Male Tiger Search : Leading from the Front 

Panna Team Building 

• Field Director lead the team of 70 staff with four 

elephants during this search operation.



Male Tiger Search : Panna Team Building









Male Tiger Search : Panna Team Building 

• during the first seven days VHF signals were not 

received. Satellite feature did not function.















Male Tiger Search : Panna Team Building 

• An important meeting of CWLW, Madhaya Pradesh, MS, 

NTCA and field officials took place at Buxwah where 

necessary permissions were given to rescue the animal.



• Mean while expert opinions were sought. 

• All the time male tiger was moving in the 

southern direction. 

• At times more than 250 people were involved 

in the searching operation. 

• Team stayed along the river beds, tents trying 

to follow the animal on 24x7 basis.



Timely compensation was paid on the spot for 

cattle kills.



• Electricity was put off while the tiger was moving 

through the agriculture fields and human 

habitations. 

• Right type of terrain and situations were must for 

proper rescue operations.



• On 25 th Dec 2009 he was captured in Tejgarh 

forests of Damoh District.



• By this time he has travelled around 400 km. 

• This is for the first time the world has ever 

witnessed „homing‟ instinct in a wild tiger. 

• He was released (Hard Release) on 26 th Dec 

2009.

T3’s Movement Outside the Park 

442 km 

14 Nov to 25 Dec 

Panna TR 

Panna TR 

250 km 

Naurahadehi WLS 

Pench TR 

Naurahadehi WLS

T3’s Movement Outside the Park 

14 to 25 – 36 km (3/day) 

26 to 29 – 30 km (7.5/day) 

30 nov to 25 dec - 375 km (15.6/day)

T3‟s movement Outside the Park



• He was released (Hard Release) on 26 th Dec 

2009.

Mr Panna (T3)



• Mid course of his travelogue expert opinion 

for luring him within the park was sought. 

Based on the inputs Female tiger urine was 

painstakingly collected from Vanvihar Zoo, 

Bhopal which arrived at PTR on the day of 

release. 

• This was diluted and sprayed at the site of 

release and some amount of concentrate was 

sprayed in the cage it self.



• The strenuous schedule of monitoring T3 out 

side the park helped the Panna Management 

to fine tune the monitoring technique. 

• Management put a strict 24x7 monitoring 

schedule on board and all the further attempts 

of male to move out of he park were 

successfully sabotaged.



Cardinals of Panna Tiger Reintroduction: 

„Security and Management Our 

Responsibility…Creation is Nature‟s Work‟ 

„Do not disturb the Nature at Work…Your 

curiosity will only spoil the out come.‟ 

Anticipation and advance planning 

Patience and Preservance



Cardinals of Panna Tiger Reintroduction: 

Role Definition Prescribed:„Every member of the 

park knows his/her job…Briefings and Debriefings‟



The female urine lure worked. T3 (male) met 

T1 (female) on 29 th Dec 2009 and they were 

together for four days.



• T1 delivered its first litter on 16/17 th April 2010 

announcing to the world about the breeding 

success of reintroduced tigers.



T1 delivered four cubs in its first litter of 

which two survive till date. due to initial 

harmony issues between T1 and T3 two cubs 

were lost in the first week of Sept 2010.



T2 is a different story. Her radio collar became dysfunctional 

from 16 th July 2009 onwards. Since then she was monitored 

based on indirect evidences only. But the staff excelled in 

this art and got evidences of her presence almost every 

alternative day.



• T2 delivered its first litter in October 2010 

confirming that T1‟s breeding success is not 

fluke.



T1 and T2 delivered their second litter in mid Feb 

2012 and end of April 2012 respectively. T1 delivered 

four cubs of which it abandoned one male. Second 

litter size of T2 is yet to be known



T4 and T5 : Re-wilding Chapter of Tigers



T4 and T5 : Re-wilding Chapter of Tigers 

• T4 and T5 are orphaned siblings of a tigress 

that was killed in a fight when they were just 

15 days old. 

• They were hand reared up to one and half 

years old in a housing facility at Mukki at 

Kanha Tiger Reserve and then transferred to a 

bigger enclosure at Ghorella




• A sub project of re-wilding was made where in 

every other precaution was incorporated. 

• T4 (Female) was released on 27 th March 2011 

(Hard Release). Again T4‟s urine lure 

technique was used to attract T3 towards her. 

This worked again. On 1.04.2011 T3 met T4.




T4 (Female) was released on 27 th March 2011 (Hard Release). 

Again T4‟s urine lure technique was used to attract T3 

towards her. This worked again. On 1.04.2011 T3 met T4.




• T4 was given initial feeding support (Bait) in 

its first month only. T3 taught T4 to make a 

wild kill and now she hunts her own food. 

• T4‟s radio collar was dropped on 17 th Sept 2011 

and as on date she is being monitored through 

indirect evidences.




T4 delivered its first litter of two cubs in the Mid 2011 

a first in the world. Now they are five months old.




T5 is fully established.



Out Comes (Managerial/Technical) 

• Team building. 

• Capacity building in 

‣Monitoring (VHF, Vocalizations, Pugmark) 

‣Intelligence gathering 

‣Tranquilization 

‣Nature Camps



Out Comes (Managerial/Technical) 

• Developing and fine tuning monitoring 

schedules. 

• Urine lure…successful experimentation 

• Pug marks, Vocalizations, VHF and Camera 

Trap..non intrusive monitoring.



Out Comes (Managerial) 

• Reestablished relevance of Pug Mark 

Technique in monitoring (T2,T4 Monitoring 

and Deciphering the number of cubs of these 

two animals)



Reintroduction-Re-wilding Report Card:



Reintroduction-Re-wilding Report Card: 

Founder 

Population 

Sex 

M/Y of 

Reintroduction 

Remarks 

T1 Female (B‟garh) March 2009 Fully 

established 

T2 Female (Kanha) March 2009 

T3 Male (Pench) Nov/Dec 2009 

T4 Female (Kanha) March 2011 Fully Rewilded 

and 

T5 Female (Kanha) Nov 2011 established



Breeding Success Report Card: 

Tiger ID Sex M/Y of Litter/Size Remarks 

First 

Second 

T1 

Female 

(B‟garh) 

April 

2010/Four 

Feb 

2012/Four 

Two 

Survive in 

the first 

Litter. 

One Male 

abandone 

d in the 

second 

litter



Breeding Success Report Card: 

Tiger ID Sex M/Y of Litter/Size Remarks 

T2 

T4 

T5 

Female 

(Kanha) 

Female 

(Kanha) 

Female 

(Kanha) 

First 

Oct 

2009/Four 

Nov 

2011/Two 

- - 

Second 

April 

2012/ 

All the 

Four 

Survive of 

the first 

litter 

- Both 

survive



Reintroduction-Re-wilding Report Card: 

Founder 

Population 

T1 

T2 

T4 

T5 

Sex 

Female 

(B‟garh) 

Female 

(Kanha) 

Female 

(Kanha) 

Female 

(Kanha) 

Cubs 

(Surviving) 

Sexes 

2+3 Male=2 

UK =3 

4+? Male=2 

Female=2 

2 Male=1 

Female=1 

Nov 2011 

Adults=5, Cubs =11 

Total= 16 (Excluding one abandoned male cub)



Intelligence and Legal Cell: 

• Developed an Intelligence Net Work 

• Nominated a Legal Advisor, Security Officer




• Got advance information about movement of 

traditional hunting communities' movement 

• Didn‟t spared even the staff. One FG was 

booked in a case and sent to jail . Two more 

staff booked for committing offence this year.




Combined trainings in Wildlife Crime and 

Legal Procedures to the staff along with adjoining 

territorial divisions




Got first ever conviction in a 

Carnivore poaching (over last two 

decades) last month. 

Basic strategy …Preventive



Consultation Processes: 

• Had a big conclave of more than 250 locally 

prominent people to enter into a dialogue 

process. 

• This processes is an on going process 

• Friends of Panna.



Panna Nature Camps: 

• A Joint on going Conservation Education 

Programme for locals (Children and Adults) A 

Joint Venture with WWF-India.



Panna Nature Camps: 

Till now over last two years 41 camps >1000 

participants



Where We Stand 

Panna Tigers 

Panna Team

Panna Tiger Reserve 

What We Want? 

Panna Team 

Peoples Support and Buffer

Acknowledgements: 

• National Tiger Conservation Authority 

• Wildlife Institute of India 

• World Wide Fund For Nature-India 

• Friends of Panna

This Presentation is Dedicated to 

My Panna Team 

Jai Hind

Thanks 

Thanks

Wild Animals Our Tigress with four cubs (T1)

Panna Tiger Reserveâ¦ How Tigers were Recovered So Fast

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