Odisha lost seven Royal Bengal Tigers (RBTs) in the last decade with three big cats falling prey to poaching, State’s Forest Minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia informed the State Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

The Minister replying to a query by Jharsuguda MLA Tankadhar Tripathy told the House that 48 leopards and 7 royal Bengal tigers have died in different forest divisions in Odisha from 2014-15 to 2023-24.

The forest division-wise breakup of 7 RBTs’ death is 1 in Balangir forest division (2016-17), 1 in Similipal south division (2017-18), 1 in Bargarh forest division (2018-19), 1 in Satkosia wildlife (2018-19), 1 in Keonjhar wildlife (2022-23) and 2 in Similipal south division (2023-24).

Odisha is home to 30 RBTs as per the last census conducted of these animals. To ensure the safety of tigers and leopards, two tiger projects have been launched. The anti-poaching and special squads deployed by the forest department are keeping constant vigil to thwart poaching bids, the Minister added.

The population of royal Bengal tigers rose to 30 in the past two years in Odisha, according to the maiden All Odisha Tiger Estimation (AITE) report released earlier this year by the State forest department.

As per the AITE report, minimum 17 tigers were camera-trapped in Odisha, which was largely confined to Similipal Tiger Reserve.

However, a total of 27 unique adult tigers were camera-trapped in Odisha during the AOTE exercise, comprising 14 females and 13 males. Evidence of another 3 adult tigers was also seen in the Similipal tiger reserve, which have not been camera trapped.

With 24 adult unique tigers, Similipal Tiger Reserve currently holds the largest share of the state’s tiger population. Similipal currently holds all the adult female tigers of the state. In total, 13 adult tigers (seven females and six males) were found to be pseudo-melanistic in Similipal, and no other wild habitat in the world has pseudo-melanistic tigers, the report said.

The Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj and the Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Angul district are two known habitats of the big cat in the State. The National Tiger Conservation Authority and Odisha forest department are working in cohesion and coordinated manner for the tiger conservation programme. Similipal is the only place in the world to boast the pseudo-melanistic tigers.