Saving Bandhavgarh's Wild Tigers from Poachers

It is surprising to be writing this report at the end of September whilst thunderstorms and heavy monsoon rains are still a daily norm in Bandhavgarh! Strange because in recent memory the heavy rains have started in mid-July and ended by mid-September. So why is 2025 different, you might wonder? Well in simple terms the monsoon has been longer and heavier than ever before in the 15-year history of Tigers4Ever. The heavy rainfall started in May and persisted throughout the month, June brought more torrential rainfall on more than 50 percent of the days, and July was the wettest we can recall. In August, when the heaviest rainfall would normally give way to a few sunny days there was no respite, thunderstorms brought down the powerlines, washed away roads and tracks and lightning felled a few trees. Usually in September we would see more sunny days than those with heavy rains, but not this year, this year the reverse is true. Whether you believe in the theories of Global Warming and Climate Change or not, it is hard to ignore the fact that in Bandhavgarh, in 2025, it has not been an ordinary monsoon!

This unusual weather pattern has stretched our anti-poaching patrols to the limit so we are truly grateful for your loyal and continued support, without which it would be impossible to maintain the highest level of patrolling in these challenging times. Thank you for helping us to keep wild tigers safe in this peak poaching season. The good news is that at the time of writing we have managed to keep the poachers at bay and to have not lost any tigers to poachers or poisoning throughout the monsoon. This would have been impossible without your generous donations, so thank you again.

If you have been following Tigers4Ever and our project newsletters for some time you will know already how the different seasons bring different challenges for our anti-poaching patrols, whilst if you are a new follower, you may just be getting up to speed with our efforts to keep wild tigers safe. So, I’d like to take the opportunity with this report to highlight the importance of our anti-poaching patrols and what they do to ensure that Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers can have the wild futures which they deserve.

The Essential Role of Anti-Poaching Patrols in Wild Tiger Conservation

Your support is vital to the survival of wild tigers in Madhya Pradesh, India’s “Tiger State.” Bandhavgarh, where our Anti=poaching patrols work is at the heart of Madhya Pradesh and is home to more than five times the number of wild tigers which roamed there when our work began! Our Anti-poaching patrols are not only the first line of defence against wildlife crime, but they’re also the heart of effective wild tiger conservation. Their work extends far beyond patrolling, by delivering lasting benefits for wildlife, habitats, and local communities. Despite conservation successes, wild tigers remain critically endangered due to persistent threats: most notably poaching, retaliatory poisoning and the illegal wildlife trade. Below we outline why your investment in our anti-poaching patrols is essential and the impact your donation achieves.

Why Anti-Poaching Patrols Are Essential

1. Direct Protection for Wild Tigers Against Poaching

• Deterrence: The visible presence of our anti-poaching patrols deters poachers and illegal loggers.
• Rapid Response: Our Patrollers can quickly respond to signs of illegal activity, preventing poaching before it occurs.
• Evidence Gathering: Our team also collects crucial evidence (traps, snares, footprints) for law enforcement.

2. Monitoring Wildlife and Habitat Health

• Tracking Tigers and Prey: Our Anti-Poaching Patrols also record tiger sightings, pugmarks, scat, and prey abundance, which in turn contributes to scientific monitoring and census preparation and data.
• Habitat Assessment: Our patrollers also monitor waterholes (Tigers4Ever waterholes and natural/seasonal water sources too), grasslands, and forest health, identifying threats like forest fires or invasive species, such as lantana which strangles and out competes natural forest flora.

3. Community Engagement and Conflict Mitigation

• Building Trust: Our Patrollers frequently interact with local communities, building trust and to gather intelligence on potential threats and problems.
• Human-Wildlife Conflict: Our patrols also help to identify, manage and mitigate conflicts, such as livestock depredation, by providing early warnings and support, and supporting compensation claims when the worst happens.

4. Supporting Law Enforcement and Prosecution

• Intelligence Gathering: Our Patrols gather information on poaching networks, movements and illegal trade to help prevent tiger deaths and ensure that that poachers can be caught when they have laid traps, etc.
• Legal Support: Their documentation and testimonies of our patrollers and team coordinators could be vital for ensuring the successful prosecution of wildlife crimes and other crimes committed during forest encroachment.

5. Conservation Awareness and Education

• Outreach: Our Patrollers frequently educate villagers about the importance of tigers and the legal consequences of poaching. They also provide forest safety advice for the villagers and their livestock to reduce both conflict and loss.
• Role Models: We employ local people as Tigers4Ever patrollers, and they inspire others to become conservation ambassadors in their communities or even future patrollers and wild tiger protectors.

Why Their Role is More Than Just Patrolling

• First Responders: Anti-Poaching Patrollers are often the first to detect and respond to emergencies such as injured animals, forest fires, or encroachment.
• Data Collection: Patrols provide critical data for research, policy, and adaptive management.
• Community Liaisons: By working closely with local people, Tigers4Ever anti-poaching patrollers help to foster a sense of shared responsibility for wild tiger conservation.
• Capacity Building: Many patrollers are trained in wildlife monitoring, first aid, and conflict resolution, which helps to enhance the local capacity for conservation.

 Case Study: Impact in Bandhavgarh

• Reduced Poaching Incidents: Areas with regular patrols report significantly fewer poaching incidents. In Bandhavgarh unnatural wild tiger deaths due to poaching have decline by 98.5% since we established our patrols in 2015.
• Improved Tiger Numbers: Effective patrolling has contributed to the stabilisation and growth of tiger populations in Bandhavgarh, with numbers increasing by 611 percent in the last 15 years.
• Community Benefits: Employment opportunities for local people as patrollers helps to reduce their dependence on scarce forest resources; and fosters positive attitudes toward wildlife and habitat conservation.

Anti-poaching patrols are the backbone of tiger conservation in Bandhavgarh. Their work is multifaceted—protecting tigers, supporting communities, gathering vital data, and responding to emergencies. Investing in and supporting Tigers4Ever’s anti-poaching patrols is essential for the long-term survival of wild tigers and the health of Bandhavgarh’s forests. Which is why our anti-poaching patrols are a keystone project for Tigers4Ever and why we give them our utmost priority every year.

Our Accountability and Transparency

Your donation is used always efficiently and effectively:

• Training and Equipment: Ensuring our patrollers are well-prepared, well-equipped and safe.
• Maintaining our Patrols: Your donations ensure that we can pay our patrollers and provide the essential fuel and transport to get the patrollers to the remotest locations and have a vehicle on standby in case of emergencies in the field.
• Community Outreach: Our Patrollers expand awareness and support for conservation in the forests and the villages, whenever they encounter people. This includes the use of training tools including safety banners, posters and talks.
• Monitoring & Reporting: Regular updates and impact reports keep you informed of the progress made by our anti-poaching patrols and the challenges which they face.

Your donations are vital to ensure we can continue this life-saving work, safeguarding wild tigers now and for the future generations to come. (https://goto.gg/28767).

Can we do more?

Our anti-poaching patrollers work tirelessly in some of the planet’s most extreme and dangerous environments, performing one of the toughest jobs in the world. Three-quarters of the global wild tiger population is in India, with 3,167 wild tigers, 785 of which are found in Madhya Pradesh, and 226 of these are found in Bandhavgarh, where our anti=poaching patrollers operate.

Worryingly the number of snare wires and signs of anchored traps are increasing again. Farmers frequently tie wire snares around the boundary of their crops and villages to prevent crop raiding, but these wire snares are indiscriminate and can kill tigers and leopards too, if they remain undetected. Our patrollers systematically remove these wires and fill the anchor points with sand or soil to prevent hidden tethered snares along the trails where tigers walk. Our patrollers always need to be extra vigilant against snares as they can be easily concealed and can snare a patroller’s foot too. Increasing tiger numbers inevitably leads to an increase in poaching, as well as increased tiger-tiger and human-tiger conflict, so we can’t afford to reduce our patrolling now. Wild tigers need more habitat and protection, so we are in the process of restoring lost forest habitat in Salkhania and creating a new wild tiger corridor at Sarmania (https://goto.gg/70006) to help accommodate the increased tiger numbers. We have also extended our patrolling range this year to include areas where some of the sub-adult tigers from Bandhavgarh have migrated.

In August and September,  roughly 50 percent of the Tigers4Ever Trustees walked just over 8 marathons collectively to fundraise for our Forest Rehabilitation (Tree Planting) Project and have raised almost enough to purchase 5000 tree saplings, which is amazing, find out more here: https://www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/teamtigers/

Every day, we confront these challenges head-on. In 2023, wild tiger deaths in India reached a 15-year high with 181 reported deaths, which was a 150% increase from 2022. The 2024 death toll reached 126, including 15 due to tiger-tiger conflict in Bandhavgarh. The news for 2025 is bleak too with 122 wild tiger deaths across India already including the cubs of Chhota Bheem and the male tiger killed by the poachers, detailed in our previous reports. So, it is vital that we continue maximum patrolling to protect wild tigers during and after the monsoon as tens of young cubs would not survive if their mother or father was killed by a poacher’s snare. Our work to enhance the existing wild tiger habitat and to reduce conflict through our wildlife waterholes project continues as post monsoon repairs will be necessary at  least 7 waterholes to ensure that they will function fully when needed: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/water-for-bandhavgarhs-tigers/.

Protecting wild tigers and their habitat means more cubs survive but with that success comes greater responsibility. As tiger numbers grow and exceed the carrying capacity of their current habitat, urgent action is needed to prevent rising conflict. We’re already facing a critical tipping point in both human-wildlife and tiger-tiger encounters.

Thanks to your generous support, our patrols have helped to reduce unnatural tiger deaths in Bandhavgarh. But we cannot let our guard down as poachers are always watching, waiting for a chance to strike. Your donations have made it possible to extend increased patrols into October 2025. With your continued help, we can keep wild tigers safe through the coming months and beyond the monsoon season. If you’re able to give, now is the time. Every donation truly makes a difference. (https://goto.gg/28767).

We are proud of our patrollers and their amazing efforts to keep wild tigers safe. During the last 4 years their workload has increased 3-fold, and our patrollers have responded with outstanding effort and hard work whilst poaching activity around India has reached a 15-year high. It is a miracle that we continue to keep so many wild tigers safe!

When conflict incidents are coupled with the increased risk of poaching activities, it means that our patrollers need to always be on high alert. We must ensure that we can maintain a minimum of tripled patrolling now, especially as poaching activity is on the increase. https://goto.gg/28767.

Making a Difference

Your continued support means that we can cover an extra 1800 km (1135 miles) of wild tiger territory per month with our tripled patrols. During patrolling, it is essential to ensure sufficient time to search for snares; traps and signs of poisoners around forest areas where human encroachment is widespread as poachers are more active. We need to maintain our patrols around the periphery of villages where crop raiding and livestock killing is rife. Our increased patrolling helps us to curb human encroachment into wild tigers’ territories and allows us to provide safety advice for those trying to protect their crops and livestock from wandering elephants and tigers respectively.

With over 226 wild tigers, including cubs, to keep safe, your help is crucial. In the last quarter, we’ve received news of 16 more precious tiny cubs which need our help. Your gift, however large or small can make a huge difference as to whether Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers and cubs can survive the unprecedented threats they face:

• Your gift of £12 ($16) will provide 3 nutritious hot meals each for 2 anti-poaching patrollers whilst they protect wild tigers.
• Your gift of £30 ($40) will help us to pay a patrolling team for a day or will provide a day’s hot nutritious meals for a patrolling team whilst they work.
• Your gift of £45 ($60) will ensure that a team of anti-poaching patrollers can reach the remotest locations for a day’s patrolling.
• Your gift of £120 ($150) will enable a team of patrollers to cover 125km (78 miles) of wild tiger territory in a day.
• Your gift of £12 (US$16) per month will help us to pay an anti-poaching patroller to protect wild tigers for 35 days per year.

Without our help, we know that wild tigers will die; and more humans will be mauled or killed due to encroachment or human-tiger conflict. Sadly, with every human life lost comes another threat to the wild tiger’s survival in the form of retaliation; thus, we must protect both if we are to ensure that wild tigers can have a wild future.

Please don’t hesitate if you can help, your donation can be the difference between life and death for a wild tiger, as it helps to increase our patrolling when it is most needed. Every tiger and every tiger cub counts. Thank you for making our fight against poachers, the changing climate and human-animal conflict possible. (https://goto.gg/28767).

Links:

• Tigers4Ever website
• Become a Fundraiser for wild Tigers
• Buy Greetings Cards to help save wild Tigers