Water for Bandhavgarh's Tigers - Reducing Conflict

Happy New Year.

Incredibly after years of shorter drier monsoons we have seen rains persist for almost 5 months in 2025! In almost 16 years of Tigers4Ever we have never seen rains like this. So it may come as a surprise that we still need to create more permanent wildlife waterholes and carry out repairs at those we currently have. If we didn’t know the landscape and terrain in Bandhavgarh, we would be surprised too. The geology of Bandhavgarh means that the majority of excess surface water disappears very quickly, sometimes in a matter of hours and in the case of seasonal streams, rivers and ponds within a few months. It is largely down to sedimentary porous rocks and soft sands. When January arrives, we are already preparing for the months of drought which will be the norm until the next monsoon in July. That’s why we’re grateful for your amazing support all year round, thank you. Without your support we couldn’t ensure that wild tigers and their prey have the water they need when they need it most.

Post Monsoon Repairs

At the end of the Monsoon season each year, it is fundamental that we check all our waterholes for damage caused by floods and storms, plus carry out routine maintenance to ensure that everything is working properly so that year-round water is available for tigers at the 26 locations you have helped us provide. Some repairs are quick where sand has built up in the borewell or clogged the motor, but some damage is harder to fix and new motoes, new pumps and sometimes even new solar panels are needed. On average we need around £2000 (US$2700) each year to carry out essential repairs at our current 26 wildlife waterholes. To help us complete the repairs we have a dedicated local engineer, Rampati, who has a no job is too small or too big attitude and always delivers excellent work promptly and efficiently when he is needed. We decided to get him a Tigers4Ever uniform this year so that people will know he’s working for Tigers4Ever whenever he is on site. If you want to help us provide a uniform for Rampati a donation of £30 (US$41) will help. Hopefully, we will have the uniform and a photo of Rampati wearing it by the time I write the next report.

Reducing Conflict with Solar-Powered Lighting

Rampati’s work doesn’t stop with the waterhole repairs and maintenance. He also helps to install the solar-powered PIR street lighting to reduce human-wildlife conflict too. Whilst many of us enjoyed the holidays and festivities in late December 2025, Rampati was working tirelessly throughout the Christmas period to install new lighting at a further 20 high priority locations. A huge thank you to the Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust and the Marsh Charitable Trust for their kind donations which helped to make this possible.

During the installations the work was co-ordinated by the newest member of Team Tigers4Ever in India, Gudiya, who joined us in December 2025 to help with administration and overseeing our Forest Restoration, Reduction of Human-Wildlife Conflict and Patrolling Equipment projects on a daily basis. Gudiya is an enthusiastic wildlife conservationist and keen bird-watcher so has excellent skills in attention to detail, a great asset for keeping projects on track. The addition of the forest restoration project in 2025, stretched our resources to the maximum and when one of the team became unwell, it was clear that we needed more help. We’re sure that like us, you’ll all welcome the addition of Gudiya to Team Tigers4Ever and wish her the best of luck in her new role.

Since 2024-25, Tigers4Ever has been reducing human-wildlife conflict by installing Solar-powered PIR street lighting at 75 high-risk locations. These locations which are now protected by Tigers4Ever installed Solar-Powered Street lighting have been free of nocturnal wildlife intrusions for 23 months (initial 20 locations) and 14 months (next 35 locations) and almost 3 weeks (final 20 locations) which has dramatically reduced human-wildlife conflict in these areas.

These solar-powered PIR lights provide illumination at the edge of the forest where wild tigers, elephants, leopards, sloth bears and other animals enter the villages when it is dark, to raid crops and kill livestock/humans. Traditionally machan lookouts in the fields would be sufficient to protect crops from intruding wildlife but the increased wild elephant population is undeterred by traditional protection methods and loss of life is sadly not uncommon as the farmers try in vain to save their crops from them. As wild animals approach the new solar-powered lights, their movement triggers the PIR sensors which intensifies the brightness ten-fold causing the animals to turn back into the forest without the human conflict which risks the lives of both the intruding animal and their human counterparts. Whilst this is a simple and effective solution to deter night raids, it does not negate the need for more waterholes and more forest habitat.

We mustn’t stand still because we have had some success, because the wild tiger and other wildlife populations continue to increase so future human-wildlife conflict is inevitable. Tigers4Ever waterholes and other innovative solutions increase in importance each day so we need to fund future projects alongside those we are already committed to complete. Your kind donations are essential to ensure that we can make more wildlife waterholes possible and to complete other projects to reduce human-wildlife conflict too. Without your help we can’t provide more safe forest homes for dispersing young wild tigers! Please help, if and whenever you can, as tomorrow may be too late. https://goto.gg/34315.

The Tigers4Ever waterhole project funds will be completely depleted by the current schedule of works including further repairs and 2 new waterholes, so we need your help to cover future maintenance costs and the construction of more waterholes as the tigers’ territory expands. If you are able to help at all, all donations however large or small will be most welcome https://goto.gg/34315

Why Tigers Need Waterholes

Hydration and Thermoregulation: Tigers, like all mammals, need water for drinking and cooling down, especially in Bandhavgarh where temperatures in the hot dry season (February to July) can reach 49°C (120°F). Wild tigers often sit in our waterholes after a heavy meal so that they feel comfortable as they digest their prey. Whilst young cubs will often play and learn to swim whilst their mothers take respite from the heat.

Territorial Behaviour: Waterholes can be territorial markers, where wild tigers patrol and scent-mark to reinforce their territorial dominance and seek to reduce conflict. Tigers4Ever waterholes currently benefit around 135 wild tigers.

Hunting Grounds: Prey species congregate at waterholes, especially in the dry season, which makes our waterholes strategic hunting locations for tigers, leopards and other predators. Tigers will often lie in wait on the prey species regular route and pounce as the unsuspecting deer or wild boar passes.

Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflict: As highlighted above, when natural water sources dry up, wildlife can venture into human settlements in search of water, which in turn leads to conflict. Maintaining our waterholes within the protected areas helps reduce this risk.

Supporting Rewilding and Habitat Restoration: Creating new, regenerating seasonal or reinforcing existing wildlife waterholes can revitalise degraded habitats and support the return of key species. This will be important as we regenerate lost wildlife habitat and expand wild tiger territories too, for more information see also our new project at: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/wild-tiger-habitat-restoration-project-in-india/.

Waterholes are more than just puddles in the forest, they are the keystones of survival for wild tigers and their ecosystems. Investing in the protection and restoration of our waterholes, and the construction of new waterholes is not only a conservation priority but a moral imperative in our fight to save one of the planet’s most iconic species. If you can support our efforts to reduce human-wildlife conflict and save wild tigers please donate whatever you can afford here: https://goto.gg/34315 thank you.

We Need More Help

To sustain the growth of Bandhavgarh’s wild tiger population, more permanent wildlife waterholes are needed in areas which can support both prey and predator dispersal. It is a major challenge for Tigers4Ever to provide more wildlife waterholes right now when they are most needed. Your support and donations are vital to ensuring that our waterholes project (https://goto.gg/34315) can address the need as soon as possible. We NEED to raise £25000/US$34500 to provide another 3 medium-large sized waterholes and 16+ are needed which will cost at least another £133350/$182000 to complete! With funding we can mobilise local labour, but without funding it will take too long and more tigers and elephants will die.

The best way to reduce Human-Wildlife conflict is to prevent the prey animals and predators entering the villages in search of water and food. We prioritise our permanent wildlife waterhole projects, every year, before the drought season takes hold.

If 500 people could read this report and donate just £10 ($13) per month each it would take just 3 months to raise enough funds to construct 1 more medium to large wildlife waterhole and that would be incredible: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/water-for-bandhavgarhs-tigers/?show=recurring. Permanent wildlife waterholes are critical to preventing tiger-tiger and human-animal conflict, which arise from increased wild tiger numbers. There are more tiger cubs (82) in Bandhavgarh than the total number of wild tigers (37) counted in the 2010 Tiger Census, when Tigers4Ever started work there. One waterhole isn’t enough to reduce the conflict caused by wild tigers encroaching on the territories of other tigers and humans, so we need your help to provide at least 2 more waterholes before it is too late for the wild tigers and other wildlife: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/water-for-bandhavgarhs-tigers/.

We need to keep wild tigers safe every day. Our anti-poaching patrols are tripled right now to counter the risks of retaliatory poisoning and poaching. If, with your help we can complete another 2 waterhole projects sooner it will help us to keep at least 16 more wild tigers including cubs safe.

How Your donations will help us to save wild tigers:

- £10 ($13) per month for a year will help to drill 12 metres (39 feet) of bore-well to access underground water.

- a one-off £20 ($26) gift will help to drill 2 metres (6.5 feet) of bore-well to access underground water.

- a one-off £40 ($52) gift will help to drill 4 metres (13 feet) of bore-well to access underground water.

- £90 ($117) can pay a team of workers to prepare a site for a new waterhole for wild tigers;

- £120 ($169) can cover the cost of labour and preparation of a 1.5 metre wide by 1.5-metre-deep elephant proof moat to protect a solar-pump system.

- £2000 ($2600) will enable the creation and lining of one larger waterhole.

Every donation, no matter how large or small, helps to increase and protect the wild tiger population. Thank you on behalf of the wild tigers, which you help us to keep safe; and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing equipment and labour for our waterhole projects. We couldn’t do this without you, thanks to you, the wild tigers can live peacefully and those who live beside them can protect their livelihoods.

All donations are welcome https://goto.gg/34315. If you can’t afford to donate perhaps you could become a Tigers4Ever fundraiser, here: https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/fundraisers/start/?fundraiser.projids=34315 and ask your friends, colleagues and family to donate to your fundraiser to help us keep wild tigers safe.

Links:

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