Why MP’s rising tiger toll is more than a ‘core’ issue

The state has lost 32 tigers in the first five months of 2026. Poaching is under control, but electrified fencing outside core areas has emerged as a major threat to the big cat. Adding to worries is the canine distemper virus that killed a tigress and 4 cubs in Kanha
Five months, 32 dead tigers and not nearly enough answers. The recent spate of big cat deaths in Madhya Pradesh, including a tigress and her four cubs in Kanha, has once again put the spotlight on the state’s famed tiger reserves. However, the real story behind the rising big cat toll may lie not inside their protected boundaries, but outside them. Forest officials said the most recent deaths have occurred outside core reserve areas, where expanding tiger populations are increasingly colliding with humandominated landscapes. Here, crude electric wire traps — often laid illegally to kill wild boar and other animals for bushmeat or to protect crops — are emerging as one of the biggest threats to big cats.

Officials said poaching networks once linked to international wildlife trade syndicates have largely been dismantled. In their place, however, a more localised and difficult-to-monitor threat has spread across the state. Electrocution now lies at the centre of the changing pattern of tiger deaths.

Treacherous TerrainAccording to the latest tiger estimate, conducted in 2022, Madhya Pradesh is home to 785 of India’s total tiger population of 3,682. The state has also witnessed one of the sharpest increases in tiger numbers in the country, recording a 49% rise between 2018 and 2022 — nearly double the national growth rate of 24%.

But while tiger numbers have surged, their habitat has not expanded at the same pace. The result, officials said, is an increasing spillover of big cats beyond protected forests and reserve boundaries. Tigers are highly territorial animals and frequently come into conflict with members of their own species, often forcing weaker, ageing or younger tigers to move out in search of new territories.

As reserves become more crowded, many tigers are increasingly pushing into buffer forests, agricultural belts and village fringes in search of space. Officials estimate that around 40% of the state’s tigers are now frequenting areas lying outside protected zones, while nearly 20% are moving through heavily human-dominated landscapes crisscrossed by roads, farms and electric lines.

Forest officials said this expanding overlap between tiger movement routes and human set- tlements is driving the changing pattern of tiger deaths in the state. Nearly 80% of tiger mortalities reported this year have occurred outside protected areas, with several carcasses recovered kilometres away from reserve forests. Dispersal movements frequently bring tigers into direct conflict with villages, while they also face a threat in agricultural zones where illegally electrified wires are used to deter or kill herbivores such as wild boar and nilgai.

MP’s chief wildlife warden, Samita Rajora, said electrocution has emerged as one of the most significant threats in these fringe landscapes. “Our analysis shows that seven tiger deaths this year were due to electrocution, largely from wire traps laid for bushmeat hunting or farm protection,” she said.

Officials said many such traps involve illegal tapping of conventional 11kV power lines used for domestic and agricultural supply in villages on the fringe of forests. According to Ritesh Sirothia, chief of the Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF), poachers or bushmeat hunters often hook into overhead lines using bamboo poles and extend wires across animal paths to create crude live-wire traps.

“When an animal comes into contact with the wire, it receives a severe electric shock, leading to burns, paralysis and, in most cases, death,” Sirothia said. “The electric line tripping record becomes key evidence in such cases. Whenever a person, animal or object touches a live wire, it causes the line to short to ground, triggering a trip in the power supply. These records capture the exact time, date, duration and location of the disruption, and often help establish timelines and corroborate poaching incidents.”

According to officials, areas along the fringes of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and Pench Tiger Reserve are currently emerging as particularly vulnerable zones. Rajora said, “We are focusing on these high-risk zones and strengthening coordination with the electricity and revenue departments. Efforts are underway to analyse power-line trip data along with GPS locations to identify electrocution hotspots.”

Numbers Tell A StoryThe broader mortality data reflects the changing nature of threats facing Madhya Pradesh’s tiger population. In 2025, the state recorded 55 tiger deaths — translating into a mortality rate of roughly 7%, slightly higher than the national average of under 5%, though officials said this remains within ecological limits, given the state’s dense, and growing, tiger count.

According to state forest department data, nearly 69% of these deaths were due to natural or incidental causes, including territorial fights, disease, age, road and train accidents, and injuries sustained during conflict. At least 13 of the deaths involved cubs aged below one year — a category known to have naturally high mortality rates and, therefore, excluded from national tiger estimates.

But officials acknowledge that the more worrying trend lies elsewhere. Nearly one in every five tiger deaths recorded in the state last year was linked to electrocution, largely from illegal live wires. However, officials said most of these incidents did not involve evidence of deliberate tiger hunting or illegal trade in body parts. Around 11% of the deaths fell into the category of confirmed poaching cases — instances where tiger body parts were recovered and accused persons identified or arrested.
Officials highlighted that MP’s comparatively high tiger death detection rate also shapes the numbers. Based on 2025 data, the national tiger mortality detection rate stood at around 54%, while MP recorded a much higher detection rate of nearly 84%. Officials attribute this to intensive patrolling and surveillance systems that ensure most tiger deaths, including those occurring in remote territorial divisions and buffer areas, are eventually detected and documented.

Wire Traps, Deadly By Design
While poaching networks have weakened over the years, officials say the threat has increasingly shifted to decentralised actors — bushmeat hunters and farmers using crude electrified wire traps and fencing to protect crops.

Recent cases show how brutal — and hard to detect — these deaths can be. In Seoni, a tigress died after being electrocuted on an illegal live-wire setup near farmland. Its carcass was dumped into a well in what investigators suspect was an attempt to destroy evidence. Burnt wires recovered from the site and forensics conducted under National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) protocols confirmed electrocution as the cause of death.

In another case, in Chhindwara, a radio-collared tiger translocated from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to Satpura Tiger Reserve was allegedly poisoned and buried, while its collar was burnt to avoid detection. Investigators suspect the killing may be linked to illegal activities, including opium cultivation, in the region. Officials also admitted that delays in responding to collar signals exposed gaps in monitoring systems.

The risk is not new, and neither are the warnings. In 2018, the then additional chief secretary (forests) and the principal secretary of the energy department had jointly issued directions to all field officers, calling for coordinated action to curb wildlife deaths due to electrocution, including joint patrolling, monitoring of power lines and realtime response to line faults. But little has changed on the ground.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey said the electricity department had been reluctant to share responsibility. “If they had come forward for joint patrolling and instant data sharing, the problem of electrocution could have been checked,” he added.
Officials, however, said that preventive efforts are now being intensified through coordinated patrols in vulnerable zones, monitoring of illegal power connections, awareness campaigns in fringe villages and action under the Electricity Act, 2003.

The ‘Killer’ Virus Threat
If electrocution is increasingly becoming the dominant threat outside of the reserves, disease outbreaks are exposing risks within core habitats. Recently, Kanha Tiger Reserve has been battling an outbreak of canine distemper virus (CDV), a highly infectious disease transmitted from domesticated dogs to wild carnivores. The outbreak killed five tigers from a single family — a tigress and her four cubs.

In response, forest officials launched emergency containment measures across buffer villages adjoining Kanha reserve. Nearly 100 dogs have already been vaccinated across eight villages, while a 2 sqkm forest patch linked to the outbreak has been sealed off.

Rajora said the department had activated a multi-layered response to prevent further spread. “Since the virus is transmitted through dogs, vaccination in buffer villages is critical. We have initiated quarantine measures, vaccination drives and intensive monitoring in the affected landscape,” she said.

Officials said water bodies inside the quarantine zone were drained, disinfected using lime and bleaching powder, and sealed temporarily to prevent other wildlife from accessing potentially contaminated sources. Forest teams have also restricted tourist movement and closed entry points to the area.