On 14 October, Manipur’s Forest Department launched two conservation projects — one for clouded leopards, one for vultures — and said it was exploring AI tools to detect trafficked wildlife. Everything being shared about the announcement is accurate. What is missing from the sharing is the number that tells you how serious the vulture situation actually is, and the national plan that the clouded leopard project almost certainly sits inside.
What was announced
The announcements came at the grand finale of the 72nd Wildlife Week, held on 14 October 2026 at the City Convention Centre, Imphal, organised by the Forest Department under the theme “Connecting Habitats, Thriving Wildlife.”
Anurag Bajpai, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, announced two projects under the banner “Two Projects, One Mission”:
- The Manipur Clouded Leopard Conservation Project
- The Vulture Conservation Project
Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla called for stronger action against illegal hunting, trafficking and smuggling, and for restoring wetlands and protecting forest corridors. He named the Sangai, clouded leopard, Himalayan black bear, pangolin and Nongin among the species needing protection.
Deputy Chief Minister and Forest Minister Losii Dikho spoke on animal welfare, scientific management and conservation education, and marked the Golden Jubilee of the Manipur Zoological Garden — fifty years.
Two books were released — Birds of Langol Reserve Forest: A Reckoner and Mahoushagi Maithong — along with a conservation video album and the 72nd Wildlife Week Celebration Report 2026.
The number in the announcement that nobody is quoting
Buried in the same announcement is this: four to five vultures are currently being conserved at the Manipur Zoological Garden.
Not four to five thousand. Four to five birds.
That figure is not a criticism of the Forest Department. It is the clearest available statement of how far the collapse has gone — and it is the single most important number in the entire announcement.
Manipur does not appear in the national vulture survey
India’s first All India Vulture Survey, conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India between 2023 and 2025, produced the national baseline. Its findings:
| Finding | Figure |
|---|---|
| Active nests found | Fewer than 2,500 |
| Sites surveyed with nests | 216 across 17 states |
| Decline in historical nesting areas | About 70% |
| Active nests inside protected areas | Over 60% |
| Maximum breeding adults, all four species | About 4,800 |
By species: Indian Vulture around 2,758; White-rumped around 1,890; Slender-billed around 40; Red-headed fewer than 50. The largest breeding colonies are in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Kangra Valley in Himachal holds most White-rumped nests. In the Northeast, the survey’s focus is Upper Assam, the main Slender-billed Vulture area.
Manipur does not feature in it.
That absence can mean one of two things — the state was not covered, or no active nesting colonies were found there. Neither has been publicly clarified, and the distinction matters enormously for what a Vulture Conservation Project is actually supposed to do.
If Manipur has no recorded wild nesting, this is not a conservation project. It is a recovery project, and those are a different undertaking altogether — requiring breeding facilities, safe-food provisioning, a diclofenac-free livestock zone and, eventually, release programmes. That is a decade-scale commitment, and worth naming as such at the start.
The clouded leopard project connects to something larger
Coverage has presented the clouded leopard project as a standalone state initiative. The timing suggests otherwise.
In July 2026, at the 91st meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wild Life in Coimbatore, India released its National Clouded Leopard Conservation Action Plan, developed under a Government of India–GEF–UNDP initiative.
That plan identifies 14 priority conservation landscapes across Northeast India and sets out:
- Habitat protection and restoration, including wildlife corridors
- Scientific monitoring using camera traps, occupancy surveys, genetics and environmental DNA (eDNA)
- Anti-poaching work through the M-STrIPES app
- Climate-resilient conservation, community livelihoods and transboundary cooperation
- Inclusion in the Species Recovery Programme under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats scheme
Manipur’s project arrives roughly three months later. This looks like state-level implementation of a national plan, not an independent idea — and that is good news, not a deflation. A project with a national framework behind it has funding lines, a methodology and reporting obligations. A standalone state announcement often has none of those.
Whether Manipur holds one of the 14 priority landscapes is the obvious question, and it has not been stated publicly.
Getting the status right
Two small precision points, because they keep being reported loosely.
| Clouded leopard | |
|---|---|
| IUCN Red List | Vulnerable — not Endangered |
| CITES | Appendix I |
| Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 | Schedule I — the highest level of protection |
| Indian range | Subtropical and tropical evergreen forests of Northeast India |
| Key protected areas | Manas (Assam), Dampa (Mizoram), Pakke (Arunachal), Clouded Leopard National Park in Sepahijala (Tripura) |
And for the record: the clouded leopard is the state animal of Meghalaya. Manipur’s state animal is the Sangai.
No population estimate exists for clouded leopards in Manipur, and none exists nationally either. The species is nocturnal, arboreal and extremely difficult to survey — which is precisely why the national plan leads with camera traps, occupancy surveys and eDNA. A baseline is the first deliverable, not an afterthought.
The AI proposal is exploratory. The workshop is not.
The artificial intelligence element has drawn the most attention, and it deserves the least.
The Forest Department is exploring AI-based technology to help enforcement agencies identify trafficked wildlife and animal parts, with discussions underway to develop mobile-accessible software that can scan and identify suspected wildlife products. There is no timeline, no cost and no named developer. It is a stated intention, and should be reported as one.
The more substantive piece of the same announcement has received far less coverage. A workshop brought together police, paramilitary forces, Assam Rifles, intelligence agencies, customs, the Airports Authority of India and airport cargo providers to coordinate against wildlife smuggling.
That matters because of geography. Manipur shares a border with Myanmar, and the routes to Moreh are a documented trafficking corridor. Interagency coordination across a land border and an airport is slow, unglamorous work — and it is the thing most likely to actually stop a consignment.
The contradiction inside the same speech
One figure from the same event has gone entirely unconnected to the rest of it.
307 hectares of illegal poppy cultivation have been identified, with destruction planned within one to two weeks.
Poppy cultivation in Manipur’s hill forests is a documented driver of forest loss. Those hill forests are clouded leopard habitat — the same habitat the new project is meant to protect.
This is not a contradiction in the Forest Department’s position; it is the Forest Department reporting its own enforcement action. But it does place the scale of the challenge in view. A conservation project and 307 hectares of active forest conversion were announced from the same stage, on the same afternoon, and no coverage has set them side by side.
What to watch
The Manipur vulture baseline. How many wild vultures, of which species, and where. Without it, the project has no measure of success.
Whether Manipur holds one of the 14 national priority landscapes. That determines funding and methodology.
The first camera-trap results. Under the national plan’s own framework, a clouded leopard occupancy survey is the natural first output. A date for it would be the most informative thing the department could announce next.
Whether the AI tool progresses past discussion. A named institutional partner and a pilot date would move it from intention to project.
The poppy figure, next year. Habitat conservation and habitat conversion are being measured by the same department. Both numbers should be published together.
Credits: Details of the launch, the officials quoted and the figures cited are drawn from North East Today and The Sangai Express, both 14–15 October 2026. The National Clouded Leopard Conservation Action Plan details are from reporting on the 91st SCNBWL meeting. Vulture figures are from the Wildlife Institute of India’s first All India Vulture Survey, conducted 2023–2025.
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