Wild Dogs of Vidarbha: Inside the World of the Elusive Dhole

Wild Dogs of Vidarbha: Inside the World of the Elusive Dhole

The dhole (Cuon alpinus), or Indian wild dog, is a rare forest predator of central India’s Vidarbha region. This social canid hunts in coordinated packs, pursuing deer and other prey across vast dry deciduous woodlands. Despite occupying large territories, the dhole is seldom seen and remains little studied.

Camera traps and field surveys are now revealing new details about its pack sizes, hunting patterns and range in Vidarbha’s forests. Wildlife teams are uncovering how these secretive predators persist amid competition with tigers and pressures from nearby villages, adding to our understanding of this little-known species.

Habitat and Range

In central India’s Vidarbha region, dholes occupy a network of protected areas and adjoining forests.

Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district is famous for its tigers, leopards and sloth bears, and it also sustains breeding packs of wild dogs.

On the Maharashtra side of Pench Tiger Reserve, bordering Madhya Pradesh, dense teak and bamboo forests similarly harbour dhole families. Farther north, the Navegaon–Nagzira Tiger Reserve (Gondia and Bhandara districts) forms a largely connected forest corridor. These reserves are dominated by tropical dry deciduous forest with rivers and grassy clearings that support abundant prey.

By some estimates, Maharashtra’s protected areas (mostly in Vidarbha) harbour only a few hundred dholes in total. Smaller forests like Umred-Karhandla, Bor and Ghodazari also hold wild dogs, but usually in lower numbers.

Overall, Vidarbha’s fragmented mosaic of teak and sal forests represents one of the last strongholds for India’s wild dog.

Pack Behaviour and Prey

Often called the “whistling dog,” the dhole is a highly social hunter that uses a range of high-pitched calls and whistles to coordinate hunts. Dholes hunt in packs by day, relying on speed and endurance to chase down medium-to-large prey.

Typical food includes spotted deer (chital), sambar deer, muntjac, wild boar and even young gaur.

Packs will encircle and harry prey together, then share the carcass. Unlike wolf packs, dhole clans often contain multiple breeding females, so a single pack can raise more than one litter at the same time. In a prey-rich forest, this strategy allows bigger families.

Field research in Vidarbha has shown that pack sizes vary widely with local conditions. In Nagzira, where tigers are scarce, researchers have recorded “super-groups” of 15–20 dholes.

By contrast, in tiger-rich Tadoba, packs are much smaller, around 6–7 animals each. Wildlife biologist Pallavi Ghaskadbi notes that “dhole pack size [is] positively correlated to higher prey density.” In other words, abundant deer and boar in Nagzira allow large packs to thrive, while smaller teams are more practical where prey is limited or competition from tigers is intense.

Packs move continuously and mark large territories; a single day’s travel of 10–20 km is not uncommon as they search for food. When big prey is scarce, dholes may scavenge or hunt smaller animals, showing some flexibility in a changing forest.

Breeding typically occurs in the dry season. Females den in sheltered spots (under rocks or tree roots) and give birth to the pups, which are then fed by the entire pack. As the monsoon ends, the growing juveniles follow the adults on hunts.

By about three to four months old, young dholes begin chasing prey themselves under the watchful eyes of helpers. This cooperative rearing boosts pup survival. Over time, observers have found that pups start learning hunting skills from month four onward, indicating a complex social upbringing.

The dhole’s behaviour, grouping, sharing and mutual support, underscores their team-oriented nature in Vidarbha’s forests.

The dhole faces multiple threats in Vidarbha’s human-dominated landscape. Chief among these is loss of habitat and prey. Over decades, forests have been cleared or fragmented for agriculture, mining and infrastructure, reducing the populations of deer, boar and other dhole prey.

With fewer chital and sambar available, packs sometimes stray toward farmland in search of goats or cattle, which can spark conflict. In India, biologists note that prey depletion is the main factor driving the decline of dholes across the subcontinent. Without healthy prey herds, even protected packs struggle to survive.

There is also a legacy of persecution. Until the 1972 Wildlife Act, dholes were hunted with bounties across India. They were considered vermin by farmers and often shot or poisoned at den sites. Legal protection has ended bounty hunts, but occasional retaliatory killings still happen when villagers lose stock.

Conservation officials have documented a few incidents of dhole packs being trapped or poisoned after livestock depredations. Fortunately, there is little market for dhole furs or meat, so targeted poaching is rare.

Habitat fragmentation is another critical threat. In much of Vidarbha, once continuous forests have been broken by roads, fields and settlements. Recent genetic studies found that Maharashtra’s dholes show extremely high differentiation between parks, indicating little to no movement between fragments. In other words, a dhole population in one reserve is effectively isolated from others.

Such fragmentation leaves each pack vulnerable to inbreeding and local extinction: if a population disappears from one forest, it will not be naturally replenished by migrants. This isolation makes Vidarbha’s dholes especially sensitive to any setbacks, such as disease outbreaks.

Disease and hybridisation pose additional risks. Dholes are susceptible to canine distemper and parvovirus from stray dogs, which periodically afflict wild carnivores in India. A single outbreak could devastate an isolated pack. Scientists have also pointed out that rare genetic mutations, such as the melanistic (black) dhole recently photographed in Maharashtra, might result from unintended hybridisation with feral dogs.

While that black dhole was outside Vidarbha, it highlights a concern for the region: expanding human settlements can bring dholes into closer contact with stray dogs, risking genetic mixing. No confirmed dhole-dog hybrids have been documented yet in Vidarbha, but experts warn it could happen if action isn’t taken.

Finally, conflict policy adds pressure. Dholes seldom attack people, but people fear them as predators of livestock.

In 2021, the state wildlife board controversially recommended that village councils be allowed to cull dhole packs if they threatened human life or crops. Officials later clarified that such extreme measures would need the forest department's approval.

Nonetheless, the very existence of such rules shows the challenge. Compensation for carnivore losses exists, but in practice, many farmers either do not claim it or do so too late. All told, the combination of prey loss, broken forests and occasional conflict means Vidarbha’s wild dog numbers remain fragile.

Conservation Efforts

Conservation Efforts

With these threats in mind, wildlife authorities and researchers are acting to safeguard the dhole. Much of the work is indirect, as part of general predator protection.

Project Tiger reserves like Tadoba and Nagzira enforce anti-poaching patrols, manage forests and control grazing, benefiting all big predators.

In particular, maintaining prey populations is a priority. Managers burn grasses or manage water to support deer and boar herds. Biologists emphasise that prey abundance is just as crucial for dhole survival as it is for tigers.

In Vidarbha, recent field surveys have begun to target the dhole specifically. State forest officials teamed up with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to carry out systematic camera-trap surveys in Nagzira.

More than 500 cameras were deployed across the reserve’s core and buffer zones, yielding tens of thousands of trap-nights of data.

The resulting images have captured numerous dhole packs, allowing researchers to map their territories. By consistently monitoring every tiger and every dhole as well as counting all prey (chital and sambar) every year, scientists say Nagzira now provides a clear window into the health of the ecosystem.

These data showed, for example, that Nagzira’s forests could support far more predators than currently exist, which in turn supported the plan to translocate extra tigresses into the park. Although these translocations aim at balancing tiger numbers, officials will watch carefully whether dhole packs adjust to the new tiger presence.

Similar work is underway elsewhere in the region. Wildlife biologists conduct regular surveys and look for dhole signs in Pench, Melghat and Tadoba.

Occasional radio-collaring of dhole pups has begun in partnership with research organisations, though this is still rare. Non-government groups and university teams often include dhole cameras or call surveys whenever they monitor tigers or leopards. These efforts have so far focused on gathering basic data.

There are no captive breeding centres or reintroductions planned for dholes in Vidarbha; conservation is wholly in the wild. Legal protection under India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act (Schedule II) technically makes it illegal to kill a dhole, which helps reduce intentional persecution.

Efforts to reduce conflict have also increased. Forest departments and NGOs hold village meetings and school programs to educate people about dholes, explaining their role in the ecosystem. Some villages have even formed volunteer groups to report dhole sightings and prevent attacks on livestock by guarding goats at night. In a few cases, farmers have built simple enclosures to protect nighttime pens.

These ground-level steps are meant to foster tolerance, though progress is slow. Every new camera-trap photo or track count adds to the understanding of the dhole’s range and behaviour.

Planning documents for Vidarbha now often name the dhole alongside tigers and leopards when discussing conservation corridors. In theory, protecting large swathes of forest for tigers should also benefit dholes.

However, experts caution that dhole needs are distinct: they require more open spaces and connectivity. A WII study bluntly noted that the dhole “has clearly not been a favourite” of researchers, meaning critical gaps remain in knowledge. As a result, conservationists are calling for dedicated dhole studies.

A recent proposal for a Dhole Conservation Project in Central India would fund region-wide surveys, disease screening and genetic monitoring. Universities and field stations in Vidarbha are beginning to join forces to fill these gaps.

Each new camera-trap photograph or genetic sample brings insight. As one researcher puts it, understanding the dhole’s fate in Vidarbha will require years of fieldwork, but each piece of data helps guide how to protect this pack-hunting predator.

In Vidarbha’s forests, each sighting of a dhole pack offers a rare glimpse into an ecosystem under pressure.

Every camera-trap photo or track sign adds a new line to the dhole’s unfolding story. For now, each insight into the dhole’s life here helps shape the work needed to keep these red-coated hunters roaming the region’s woodlands in the years ahead.

References

• Pinjarkar, V. (2021, January 18). Gram panchayats empowered to kill wild animals including dhole if they threaten life or property. The Times of India. Retrieved from timesofindia.indiatimes.com

• The NewsDirt. (2023, July 17). Nagzira Tiger Reserve: A crucial hub for carnivore monitoring and prey assessment.

• The NewsDirt. (2023, July 14). 10 Ecological Hotspots in Vidarbha.

• Vajpeyee, G. (2025, May 7). Rare wildlife sightings across Maha: Genetic phenomena or deeper malaise. Hindustan Times.

• Cornell University Wildlife Health Center. (n.d.). Dhole – Health and conservation.

• Ghaskadbi, P., Habib, B., Qureshi, Q., Jhala, Y., & Mondal, K. (2015). A whistle amongst growls: Dholes in a multi predator system in dry deciduous forests of India (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Wildlife Institute of India

• Modi, S., Mondol, S., Nigam, P., Majumder, A., Sathyakumar, S., & Vedantham, H. (2025). Sympatric carnivores in fragmented landscapes: Multi-species genetic connectivity in central India. Landscape Ecology, 40(1), 162. [DOI: 10.1007/s10980-025-02174-1]