MEE 2022 score
Rated “Good” in the fifth-cycle national Management Effectiveness Evaluation. The site visit occurred 8–11 September 2022.
Conservation Evidence
Mukundara conservation challenges, responses and public evidence
Official evaluations identify both management strengths and unresolved pressures. This page pairs each challenge with documented action, its evidence date and the public outcomes that still require tracking.
Site evaluation: September 2022
Funding cycle: 2025–26
Sources checked 13 August 2026
Evidence Status
A sanction is not evidence of completed work
“Evaluated” records conditions observed during an official assessment. “Notified” records a legal change. “Sanctioned” records an approved activity or budget, but not expenditure or completion. “Audit finding” records a historical audit period. Each status below is retained to prevent planned, funded and completed work from being conflated.
Official Snapshot
Management evidence at four different dates
Current notified reserve
Core and buffer total after the Rajasthan notification dated 5 October 2023.
Approved 2025–26 MHTR APO cost
Approved programme cost in the NTCA Rajasthan sanction; it is not a statement of expenditure or completion.
First central release
First-release amount shown for MHTR after adjustment of the recorded unspent balance.
CAG audit period
Findings were updated through 2022–23 and the report was tabled on 19 February 2026.
Revised ex-gratia effective date
Rajasthan’s revised human injury and death amounts apply from this date, subject to the order’s conditions.
Challenge–Response Record
Documented pressures, action and measures of progress
Statements from the 2022 MEE remain date-bound. Later notifications and sanctions are shown separately where they address an earlier recommendation, but no completion is inferred without outcome evidence.
Linear reserve form and landscape links
Evidence: The 2022 MEE identified the reserve’s linear form as an inherent vulnerability, while also recording connectivity potential towards Ranthambore–Ramgarh Vishdhari and Gandhi Sagar through Bhainsrodgarh.
Documented response: The 5 October 2023 notification inserted Bhainsrodgarh-area entries into the Critical Tiger Habitat schedule and revised the reserve total. The Rajasthan LTAP also presents a 30-year connectivity vision.
Status: Notified + long-term planning
Public measures: Periodic landscape-scale occupancy summaries, habitat-condition trends and legally secured corridor area, without publishing animal locations.
Road and rail mitigation remains a continuing requirement
Evidence: The MEE reported wall fencing on some railway mortality-prone segments and an underground tunnel under construction for the eight-lane highway. The same evaluation continued to identify unmitigated exposure along road and rail sections.
Documented response: The Bharatmala wildlife-clearance record contains mitigation commitments, and the MEE recorded work underway in September 2022.
Status: Partial / last site-specific evidence 2022
Public measures: Structure-completion status, independent usage monitoring, maintenance records and aggregated wildlife-mortality trends.
Invasive plants and grassland condition
Evidence: The MEE identified Prosopis, Lantana and Ocimum canum infestation as limiting factors for herbivores. The later CAG audit reported the absence of an adequate long-term invasive-species policy at the wider State level during its audit period.
Documented response: The FY2025–26 APO sanctions habitat improvement and weed-eradication work for MHTR.
Status: Sanctioned, completion not inferred
Public measures: Treated hectares, method, repeat-treatment need, native vegetation recovery and before-after satellite or field evidence.
Prey augmentation requires measured ecological outcomes
Evidence: The 2022 MEE recommended in-situ conservation breeding and intensive monitoring of released prey populations, including demography and survival.
Documented response: Prey augmentation and associated habitat work appear among the approved MHTR priorities in the FY2025–26 APO.
Status: Recommended + sanctioned
Public measures: Pre-release health protocols, aggregate release and survival results, prey-density trends and independent review. Exact release sites should remain unpublished.
Villages, livelihoods, livestock and conflict response
Evidence: The MEE recorded varied relocation stages in September 2022 and noted future human–tiger interface risk. The CAG audit also identified slow relocation and community-participation weaknesses across Rajasthan tiger reserves during its historical audit period.
Documented response: The FY2025–26 APO includes conflict compensation support, livestock and dog vaccination, local wildlife volunteers and eco-development activities. Rajasthan revised human death and injury ex-gratia amounts in April 2026.
Status: Active policy + sanctioned work
Public measures: Voluntary-consent records, household rehabilitation outcomes, grievance resolution, payment time, vaccination coverage and community representation.
Protection strengths coexist with staffing and reporting gaps
Evidence: The MEE described operational M-STrIPES, surveillance and Border Home Guard deployment as strengths, while reporting substantial frontline vacancies, limited formal wildlife training, sparse research and minimal public information in 2022.
Documented response: The FY2025–26 APO approves protection, communications, Home Guard/STPF support, monitoring and maintenance components.
Status: Sanctioned, current staffing not verified
Public measures: Aggregate sanctioned-versus-filled posts, training days, annual research summaries, utilization certificates and non-sensitive management outcomes.
Management Effectiveness Evaluation
What the September 2022 MEE established
The fifth-cycle evaluation rated MHTR “Good” at 60.16%, improving from “Fair” in the 2014 and 2018 cycles. The assessment documented landscape connectivity, unified core-buffer administration, protection deployment, vegetation recovery inside the enclosure, partial linear-infrastructure mitigation and progress in voluntary relocation.
It also listed invasive plants, feral cattle, infrastructure exposure, frontline vacancies, weak participation by Eco-Development Committees, limited public information, insufficient research and delays in fund use. These are findings from a September 2022 visit, not a description of every condition in 2026.
Voluntary Relocation
Published status and safeguards must be read together
Relocation is governed by rights recognition, voluntary choice, compensation and rehabilitation requirements. A village-status statement does not establish the outcome for every household.
LaxmipuraReported completely relocated in the September 2022 MEE.
Kherli Bawadi and GhatiReported relocated except for absentee landholders in the September 2022 MEE.
MashalpuraReported partially relocated in the September 2022 MEE.
Damodarpura and GiridharpuraRelocation deliberations were reported underway in the September 2022 MEE.
NTCA’s document register records that central funding assistance for voluntary village relocation was enhanced from ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh per eligible family on 8 April 2021. Rajasthan’s 24 July 2025 order replaces the State’s 2022 land-package provisions and retains the choice between the prescribed land package and the ₹15 lakh cash option, or the NTCA amount applicable at the time. Eligibility, voluntary option selection, rights settlement and actual payment must be verified from the applicable household and government record; a published package does not prove an MHTR payment or rehabilitation outcome. See the locally archived Rajasthan order and original-source record.
FY2025–26 Annual Plan of Operation
Approved priorities and the boundary of the evidence
The NTCA sanction dated 22 July 2025 approves a programme and first release for Rajasthan tiger reserves. It requires physical and financial progress reporting, utilization records and dated before-after evidence for applicable works.
MHTR APO cost
Approved programme cost including State share.
Central share
Central assistance shown for the approved MHTR programme.
First release
Release after the recorded ₹28.341 lakh unspent-balance adjustment.
ProtectionCommunications, field protection and Home Guard/STPF support.
HabitatHabitat improvement and invasive-weed treatment.
Prey recoveryPrey augmentation and related monitoring activity.
CoexistenceConflict compensation, vaccination, volunteers and eco-development.
Amounts are shown in lakh rupees as presented in the sanction. Approval and release do not establish expenditure, field completion or ecological success. Open the locally archived FY2025–26 Rajasthan sanction record.
Historical Audit Context
How the 2025 CAG report is used on this page
Scope
Rajasthan Report No. 5 of 2025 contains a Subject Specific Compliance Audit of tiger-reserve management for FY2016–17 to FY2020–21, with later position updates identified in the report. It was tabled on 19 February 2026. Its executive summary discusses staffing, protection, invasive species, land security, village relocation and community participation across the State system.
Limits
State-wide findings are not attributed to MHTR alone. The reported relocation aggregate—108 planned villages across Ranthambore, Sariska and MHTR, with 15 fully and 17 partially relocated by March 2023—is a combined historical figure, not the current MHTR count.
Open the locally archived CAG chapter and original-source record.
Official Public Help
Wildlife rescue, forest fire and encroachment: 1926
Rajasthan Forest Department lists the toll-free helpline 1926 for animal rescue, forest fire and encroachment reports. Reports should describe the event and a safe, general location; members of the public should not chase, crowd, feed or handle wildlife.
The April 2026 State order sets ex-gratia amounts for wildlife-caused human death or permanent incapacitation at ₹10 lakh, grievous injury at ₹2 lakh, and minor injury at ₹25,000, subject to certification, procedure and the other conditions in the order.
Public Outcome Tracker
Evidence that can demonstrate progress without compromising wildlife safety
Habitat restorationTreated area, method, native recovery and repeat-treatment requirement.
Linear mitigationCompletion, maintenance, independent usage evidence and aggregate mortality trend.
Prey recoveryHealth protocols and aggregate demographic outcomes, without release coordinates.
Voluntary relocationConsent, rights settlement, payment, land, housing, services and livelihood outcomes.
Conflict responseIncident trend, verified compensation turnaround and preventive vaccination coverage.
Management capacityAggregate vacancies, recruitment, training, research outputs and fund utilization.
Method and Sources
Source hierarchy and update policy
Legal claims use notifications; management findings use the dated MEE; historical accountability uses the CAG audit; proposed and funded work uses the LTAP and APO with their status retained. Later evidence supersedes an older status only when the later source addresses the same subject.
- NTCA and WII, fifth-cycle Management Effectiveness Evaluation, MHTR site evaluation 8–11 September 2022.
- NTCA, Rajasthan FY2025–26 administrative approval and first-instalment sanction, 22 July 2025.
- CAG, Rajasthan Report No. 5 of 2025, tabled 19 February 2026.
- Rajasthan Forest Department, Long Term Action Plan for tiger conservation.
- Rajasthan Forest Department, revised human-wildlife conflict ex-gratia order, effective 2 April 2026.
- MHTR archive, 2019 Bharatmala wildlife-clearance record.
Conservation-Safe Publishing
This page deliberately omits patrol-post locations, protection schedules, animal coordinates, release sites and other operational detail that could increase wildlife risk. Public accountability can be supported through aggregated, dated outcomes without exposing sensitive field information.