Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Madhya Pradesh, the ‘tiger state of India’, suffered a record number of tiger mortalities last year, a tragic trend that has continued in 2026.
Madhya Pradesh reported 785 tigers in the last census, the findings of which were made public in 2023. In 2025, the state lost 55 tigers, the highest ever in its history. Eleven more tigers are reported dead in January-February this year.
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What killed the tigers? Of the 55 mortalities in 2025, 16 had been poached: 11 tigers were found dead and in the remaining five cases, tiger skins were recovered. This year, of the 11 mortalities, five have been declared as cases of poaching.
The most common method of poaching tigers seems to be electrocution. Electric cables are tied around agricultural fields or on pathways taken by animals in forests, at times with the intention of killing herbivores for meat by local communities. This often ends in tigers becoming victims. The culprits usually try to hide the carcass, fearing a blowback from authorities.
Concerned over the high number of deaths, wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh Jabalpur. “Since the launch of Project Tiger in 1973, this (2025) is an all-time yearly high of the number of dead tigers in Madhya Pradesh. With no accountability fixed, such deaths continue to occur. The objective of the PIL is to fix responsibility,” Dubey said.
Even as the case proceeds in court, Dubey claimed, the forest department has been merely submitting letters written to the power supply company in court as proof of action and effort. “Something should be done about the misuse of electrical cables around forests,” Dubey demanded.
On the other hand, the most common cause of natural death among tigers is infighting. “In our analysis of the past seven years, 40 per cent of tiger mortalities occurred due to infighting,” said Subharanjan Sen, chief wildlife warden, Madhya Pradesh. Collision with trains is another cause for death, especially in the Budhni ghat section of Ratapani Tiger Reserve, located around 60 km from Bhopal.
Tiger infighting was higher in some reserves, such as Bandhavgarh and Kanha. Infighting cases have started emerging from the Panna, Pench and Satpura tiger reserves as well. “The number of tigers in Panna, Pench and Kanha has increased. The dominant male usually doesn’t allow a new male to enter the territory, and a fight ensues. Infighting is reported among tigresses too as even they are territorial,” said Sen.
To control infighting, the forest department has been working on plans to secure corridors between tiger reserves; the effort has so far had limited success. One way out is to create more tiger reserves, sanctuaries and national parks to increase habitat, but that has its own challenges.
The Supreme Court recently asked states to determine the ‘carrying capacity’ of reserves, that is the number of tigers a habitat can support. The Madhya Pradesh forest department has asked the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun to work on that aspect.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
