Forest Minister Kedar Kashyap announced a near-doubling of the tiger population, record tendu leaf rates, and millions of man-days in revived Bastar forestry.
NAWA RAIPUR, Sept 1 — Chhattisgarh didn’t just stabilise its endangered tiger population; it engineered an unprecedented 94 percent surge to bring the count from 18 big cats up to 35 in just four years. Forest and Climate Change Minister Kedar Kashyap detailed this massive ecological turnaround during a press briefing at the Chhattisgarh Samvad auditorium, outlining how the state’s “Harit Chhattisgarh, Samriddh Chhattisgarh” campaign is completely reshaping forest management. The department isn’t relying entirely on natural breeding to sustain this momentum. They’ve secured federal approval to translocate three tigresses from Bandhavgarh into the sprawling 2,829-square-kilometre Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve. With enclosures built and patrol camps fully staffed, the cats will move as soon as the monsoon recedes.
And this wildlife revival is operating in tandem with a massive economic push into previously inaccessible territories.
As security conditions finally stabilize across the Maoist-affected zones of Bastar, the forest department is actively resuming timber and bamboo extraction deep inside Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, and Kanker. Planners expect these revived forestry operations to generate a staggering 21.67 lakh man-days of local employment. It’s a deliberate strategy to curb distress migration by tying local wages directly to the land. But how can a government balance heavy commercial extraction with the everyday survival of the tribal families who live on the fringes of these forests?
They’re doing it by paying the highest raw material rates in the country.
Kashyap confirmed the state’s tendu leaf procurement rate now stands at ₹5,500 per standard bag. In 2025 alone, 11.44 lakh tribal families collected 13.85 lakh bags, triggering ₹757 crore in direct online payments alongside a ₹153 crore incentive bonus distributed to 7.14 lakh collectors. The department also handed out protective footwear to 12.40 lakh women and has budgeted the same for 12.38 lakh men in 2026, while opening 13 brand-new collection centres in the remote forests of Abujhmad. Private farmers aren’t being left behind either. The Kisan Vriksha Mitra Yojana offers a 100 percent subsidy for plantations up to five acres, driving 36,896 beneficiaries to plant over 3.675 crore commercial saplings across 62,441 acres of agricultural land.
Women’s self-help groups are also cashing in on the state’s botanical wealth. Backed by the PM JANMAN scheme, over 70,000 women across 6,000 collectives generated ₹4.42 crore by producing 181 different herbal products, securing over ₹5 crore in direct commissions. In Dhamtari, rural women planted 120 acres of vetiver along the Mahanadi basin, while 1,854 women cultivated over 8.12 lakh high-value medicinal plants like Shatavari and Sinduri in their own backyards.
This localized conservation model is producing stunning results across the food chain.
Barnawapara Sanctuary’s blackbuck population skyrocketed from 77 to over 200, a milestone that earned direct praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a recent ‘Mann Ki Baat’ broadcast. In the Indravati Tiger Reserve, the native wild buffalo count remains stable at 14 to 17, while an introduced herd from Assam successfully expanded from six to 11 animals. Even the state bird, the Hill Myna, boasts a thriving population of 800 to 900 birds, with 250 active nests protected by the community-led ‘Myna Mitra’ initiative. To protect these expanding wildlife corridors from escalating human-elephant conflicts, the state deployed the ‘Gaj Sanket’ early-warning app and 90 tracking squads comprising 545 trained community volunteers.
The state didn’t let environmental red tape stall basic services for these rural communities, either. Officials cleared 1,168 public works through the Forest Rights Act, pushing through approvals for hospitals, schools, and power lines while greenlighting 59 BSNL telecom towers in a record 70 days. They’ve also deployed advanced thermal monitoring systems that slashed forest fire response times from two hours down to a rapid five to ten minutes.
So the administration is leveraging total digital integration to ensure the money and the resources actually reach the ground. Kashyap noted that the department fully integrated its financial systems with the Reserve Bank of India’s e-Kuber and e-Kosh platforms, processing over ₹1,520 crore in online transfers in 2025-26, and another ₹209 crore through August of this year. With Bilaspur’s Kopra Reservoir officially securing the state’s first Ramsar wetland tag and Kanger Valley National Park landing on UNESCO’s tentative list, Chhattisgarh is proving that aggressive conservation and rural prosperity can finally coexist.
