The National Tiger Conservation Authority’s latest ‘STRIDES 2026’ report shows that only 298 villages and over 32,000 families have been relocated from the critical tiger habitats (core areas) of India’s tiger reserves so far, with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra leading the numbers. In Maharashtra, 2,056 families across 29 villages have been resettled from Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, and 4,711 families across 25 villages from Melghat.
Despite decades of effort, 742 villages (72%) and nearly 98,000 families still live within core areas. Of 1,040 villages originally identified in core zones nationally, only 28% (298 villages) have completed relocation. At the family level, just 32,198 of 1,29,984 families have moved out, leaving 97,786 still inside. Only 18 of the country’s tiger reserves have been made fully free of human habitation, while 40 reserves still have settlements.
Madhya Pradesh’s Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve tops the list with 43 villages and 5,701 families relocated, followed by Kanha (37 villages) and Satpura (36 villages). Telangana’s Amrabad reserve has the most pending cases — 61 villages and 20,435 families, the highest nationally — followed by Rajasthan’s Ranthambore (60 villages, 7,373 families) and Chhattisgarh’s Indravati and Udanti-Sitanadi reserves.
Relocation is voluntary under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006, requiring gram sabha consent and adequate rehabilitation packages. NTCA says each reserve needs 800–1,200 sq km of human-free area for effective tiger breeding, requiring sustained political will, funding and social coordination.
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