Madhya Pradesh has built much of its wildlife identity around big cats. In recent years, cheetahs have added another global predator to the state’s conservation story.
But there is another number worth knowing: 772.
That is the estimated number of adult Indian peninsular wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) in Madhya Pradesh — the highest state-level estimate in India.
A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution estimated that Madhya Pradesh was home to 772 adult Indian peninsular wolves. Rajasthan followed with 532, Gujarat with 494 and Maharashtra with 396.
Across India, the researchers estimated about 3,170 adult Indian peninsular wolves, with an uncertainty range of 2,568 to 3,847.
There is, however, an important qualification: this was not a statewide wolf census.
Yadvendradev Jhala, Swati Saini, Satish Kumar and Qamar Qureshi arrived at the estimate using data from 26,838 camera traps covering 121,337 sq km, along with radio-telemetry records, published information and authenticated sightings.
They used these records to model the species’ distribution and estimate how many wolves the available habitat could support.
So, why is Madhya Pradesh wolf country?
The answer begins with the landscape.
The wolf isn’t looking for a tiger’s forest
The Indian peninsular wolf belongs to an ancient lineage found across the Indian subcontinent. It is different from the Himalayan or Tibetan wolf associated with the high-altitude landscapes of the Himalayas and Trans-Himalaya.
The 2022 assessment found that Indian wolves were associated with semi-arid scrub, grasslands and open forests. They tended to avoid dense wet forests, highly disturbed areas beyond a certain threshold, arid deserts and landscapes with high densities of top carnivores.
Their presence was also associated with moderate livestock densities.
That distinction matters.
India often imagines wildlife habitat as dense forest. A tiger reserve looks like wilderness; a stretch of scrub or grassland often does not.
For an Indian wolf, however, that open country can be exactly what makes a landscape suitable.
Madhya Pradesh has plenty of it.
The 2022 study estimated that the state had 81,734 sq km of potential wolf-occupied habitat and 25,979 sq km of potential breeding habitat — both the largest state-level figures in the study.
Researchers identified several landscapes supporting good wolf populations, including Shivpuri–Mukundara–Gandhi Sagar, Satpura–Betul–Melghat, Bandhavgarh–Sanjay and Panna–Nauradehi.
The landscape helps explain the number.
But there is another reason Madhya Pradesh’s wolf story matters. Some of the areas that continue to support wolves are also becoming important tiger landscapes.
When the tiger returns
Nauradehi offers a useful glimpse into that changing landscape.
Before tigers were reintroduced, the wolf was considered the largest predator in the Nauradehi Wildlife Division. Tigers were reintroduced there in 2018, and the landscape is now part of Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve.
The return of the tiger created an opportunity to study what happens when a large apex predator moves back into a landscape already used by wolves.
The Madhya Pradesh State Forest Research Institute has been running a project titled Ecology of Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) and its Conservation Implications in Nauradehi Wildlife Division.
The project looks at wolf movement, ranging patterns, feeding, breeding, prey availability and how the animals share the landscape with other large carnivores. It also examines how local communities perceive and coexist with wolves.
Researchers are following three radio-collared wolves and their pack members. They have conducted prey surveys, examined scats and kills, and used camera traps to understand habitat use and movement.
The SFRI’s 2024–25 annual report records 469 cameras deployed across the Nauradehi Wildlife Division.
The question is not simply whether a tiger can overpower a wolf.
It is whether the two predators can continue to use the same larger landscape while occupying different ecological spaces.
That makes Nauradehi an important place to understand whether conservation built around India’s most celebrated predator can also make room for a predator that depends on a very different kind of habitat.
The bhediya we think we know
The wolf has been part of Indian storytelling for centuries, long before it became a subject of camera-trap surveys.
In the Vaka Jataka, one of the Jataka stories, a wolf stranded on a rock during a flood decides to observe a holy day but abandons the vow when a goat appears. The story uses the animal to explore temptation and weakness.
Centuries later, Rudyard Kipling gave the wolf a very different role.
In The Jungle Book, Mowgli is brought into the Seeonee wolf pack, led by Akela, with Father Wolf and Mother Wolf as his guardians.
Kipling’s original setting for Mowgli’s jungle was the Seoni area of the Central Provinces, now Madhya Pradesh.
Pench National Park and Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh is not just a forest;—it’s the living, breathing inspiration behind The Jungle Book. Walk Mowgli’s magical trail, where Bagheera’s wisdom, Baloo’s playful spirit, and Shere Khan’s fierce presence come alive amidst this… pic.twitter.com/HcIcHn1sMb
— Madhya Pradesh Tourism (@MPTourism) January 24, 2025
The literary wolf is familiar. The Indian wolf that survives today is less so.
Wildlife scientist Y V Jhala, who co-authored the 2022 national assessment, has spent decades studying the species. In a 2024 article, he wrote from his experience of working with wild wolves that “wolves are extremely shy and elusive animals that attempt to avoid contact with humans at all costs.”
In a 2026 article, Jhala described the Indian wolf as “the most ancient living lineage of its species”, noting that it is about 100,000 years older than wolves found in North America and Europe. He also wrote that the species has lost significant ground and now faces pressures in landscapes increasingly shared with people.
The 2022 assessment identified habitat loss from development, hybridisation with dogs, fast-moving roads, disease and persecution among the major threats to the species. Photograph: (Mohammed Salman-Via-thedholeproject)
That is the paradox at the centre of Madhya Pradesh’s wolf story.
The state has the country’s highest estimated wolf population not because wolves have been given a landscape designed specifically for them, but because large parts of Madhya Pradesh still contain what the species needs: open landscapes with grasslands, scrub and relatively open forests.
A different conservation map
The Indian wolf also highlights a challenge in the way wildlife is protected.
Its habitat does not always fit neatly inside a national park or tiger reserve.
Wolves can move through pastoral landscapes, agricultural edges and scrub outside protected areas, bringing them into contact with livestock, people, roads and free-ranging dogs.
The 2022 assessment identified habitat loss from development, hybridisation with dogs, fast-moving roads, disease and persecution among the major threats to the species.
It argued that protecting breeding habitat, reducing persecution and controlling the presence of feral dogs would be essential for the wolf’s long-term survival.
That makes the wolf’s future closely linked to the future of open landscapes.
Madhya Pradesh may remain one of India’s most important states for tigers, while its cheetahs add another chapter to the state’s wildlife story.
But the 772-wolf estimate points to another conservation reality: some of India’s important predators do not need more forest. They need us to recognise the value of grasslands, scrub and open country, too.
