Karnataka’s tiger population in reserves drops for third year in a row, now at 393: Report

This marks a dip from 408 tigers recorded in 2023 and 417 in 2022. In 2018, the count stood at 472.

The number of tigers in Karnataka’s five tiger reserves has declined to 393, as per the 2024 Phase IV monitoring conducted by the Karnataka Forest Department.

The data, released by the Forest Department on Thursday, was shared by Karnataka’s Minister for Forests, Environment, and Ecology, Eshwar B. Khandre.

According to a report by The Hindu, this marks a dip from 408 tigers recorded in 2023 and 417 in 2022. In 2018, the count stood at 472.

The data, released by the Forest Department on Thursday, was shared by Karnataka’s Minister for Forests, Environment, and Ecology, Eshwar B. Khandre. The latest Phase IV monitoring was conducted between November 2023 and February 2024 in the Bandipur, Nagarahole, Bhadra, Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple (BRT), and Kali (Dandeli-Anshi) tiger reserves, the report added.

Despite the dip in the reserve count, the overall tiger population in Karnataka—assessed once every four years through the All India Tiger Estimation (AITE), has shown a steady increase, the report added.

Officials expect the 2026 AITE to provide a clearer picture of how tigers have established themselves in newer protected areas beyond the designated reserves.

“The AITE covers a much larger area, beyond tiger reserves, giving a more comprehensive estimate of the state’s total tiger population,” a senior official said according to The Hindu. The AITE 2022 placed Karnataka’s total tiger count at 563.

Camera trap data and AI-based analysis

The Phase IV monitoring used 2,160 camera traps across various locations, capturing a massive dataset of 61 lakh images of wildlife species. AI-based software helped identify individual tigers by analyzing their unique stripe patterns, officials said.

The Karnataka Wildlife Technical Cell compiled and analyzed the data for the “Annual Report on Status of Tigers, Prey, and Other Mammals – Karnataka 2024,” which was released in Bengaluru by Minister Khandre in the presence of senior Forest Department officials.