Madhya Pradesh ranks 3rd in the tiger population of the country with 308 tigers.

However, recently, tigers were spotted in 1432 forest beats across Madhya Pradesh and this is twice than recorded in 2014. A new national census report is awaited.

Tiger Reserves / National Parks of Madhya Pradesh

For wildlife enthusiasts, Madhya Pradesh tops the list of “Tiger Sighting Index”.

Newer wildlife sanctuaries are offering joyful news of presence of significant numbers of Tigers & over a period of time, no wonder, Madhya Pradesh may soar to the top place to see Tigers in India.

We are delighted to share a very recent development too :

An ambush of Tigers were spotted for the first time in Madhya Pradesh’s Kheoni Wildlife Sanctuary.

A tiger, two tigresses and two cubs have been captured for the first time by the night-vision cameras set up in the sanctuary, Dewas Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) PN Mishra said.

The streak of tigers was seen drinking water, he said, adding that vigil had been tightened across the sanctuary.

“The cubs are around one-and-half years old ( sub adult ). They have been spotted in the past too.

But this is the first time that all the five tigers were seen together , indicating that they are resident wild cats.

Located quite near to Indore in Dewas district, Kheoni Wildlife Sanctuary is around 125 kms from Indore and has been showing a significant growing population of Leopards,the rare honeybadger and now, Tigers.

Kheoni Wildlife Sanctuary, established in 1955, is situated in Dewas District, Madhya Pradesh. Spread over an area of 122.7 sq km, it is basically a dry deciduous forest, primary flora being teak and bamboo species, and is a home to a wide variety of fauna. Major animal species found here include chital, sambar, blue bull, four-horned antelope, wild boar and barking deer.

The sanctuary is also rich in birdlife, specially in winters. The Sanctuary also has a number of tourists’ spots for visitors. For taking the bath in the ‘Bal-Ganga’ which flows in the forest village Kheoni, people come here 3-4 times every year. There is also an ancient Shiv temple in the village in which the ancient idols of the god and goddess have been found.

 As of now, the only accommodation available is the Forest Rest House of Kheoni.

As per the ENVIS (Environment Information System) Madhya Pradesh website, the primary fauna found in Kheoni Sanctuary are cheetal, sambhar, blue bull, four-horned antelope, wild boar, barking deer, wolf etc.

The wildlife century contains six large meadows and is a perfect breeding ground for herbivorous animals like cheetals and barking deer. Forest officials had made elaborate arrangements to create water holes in the sanctuary at strategic locations. Solar pumps were installed to fill the water holes on a regular basis during the summer season. With food and water in abundance the Tigers have thrived in the scorching hostile summer season.

The Dewas forest division had recently prepared an action plan on Tiger Conservation for accredition under Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CATS) site which was assessed for compliance by a team of three experts.

Under the CATS, a tiger conservation area is encouraged to meet a set of standards and criteria created by an international group of experts and protected area managers for effective and long-term tiger conservation. Forest department had been making a efforts since quiet a long time to sustain the tiger population in  wildlife century. The department is also planning to train the inhouse staff on Tiger management with expertise from the Satpura National Park. Encouraged by the recent sightings of tigers, the forest department plans to hold meetings of the local tiger council involving the Dewas district administration and police to chalk out plans to conserve the Wildcats.