The National Tiger Conservation Authority has delivered a damning indictment of the Andhra Pradesh forest department. At the centre of this failure stands Minister for Environment, Forest, Science, and Technology Pawan Kalyan.
Twenty-two tigers that were captured on camera in previous years have gone missing from the latest Phase-III data of the All India Tiger Estimation. The fieldwork was completed five months ago. Yet the analysis remains incomplete. The NTCA has warned that once the data is properly examined, the disappearance of these tigers “assumes serious significance and warrants a thorough investigation.” Under Pawan Kalyan’s watch, that investigation has still not happened.
An emergency inspection of the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve has exposed a shocking state of neglect. The reserve is running with 71 per cent of posts vacant. Of the 200 anti-poaching camps that are supposed to protect the tigers, only 91 are operational. The NTCA has stated in clear terms that this shortfall is directly undermining protection and surveillance.
While the department issues bland statements claiming there is no evidence of mass poaching, it has simultaneously confirmed that a tiger was shot dead in the Giddalur range on 31 July in an organised poaching incident. Seven people have been arrested. Tigers have also been seen moving with snares around their bodies — clear proof that poaching continues inside the reserve. The minister’s department has failed to stop it.
Leadership chaos has made matters worse. Field Directors of NSTR are being transferred so frequently that continuity in protection and management has collapsed. The NTCA has written to the Chief Secretary objecting to these repeated transfers, pointing out that they damage long-term conservation strategies. The mandatory three-year tenure for Field Directors, agreed under the tripartite arrangement, is being openly violated. This is happening under the same Forest Minister who is supposed to safeguard the state’s most important tiger landscape.
This is not a bureaucratic oversight. It is a failure of political leadership. A Minister for the Forest & Wildlife Department cannot claim commitment to wildlife while allowing critical posts to remain vacant, anti-poaching camps to stay shut, scientific data to gather dust, and field directors to be shuffled like temporary staff. The result is written on the ground: missing tigers, dead tigers, and a reserve that is no longer being protected with the seriousness it demands. The NTCA’s findings show what that responsibility has produced so far—vacancies delay, instability, and dead big cats.
