Madhya Pradesh high court seeks report on Tiger deaths in Bandhavgarh Reserve

BHOPAL/JABALPUR: A division bench of MP high court on Wednesday directed the field director of Bandhavgarh tiger reserve to present a detailed report on death of tigers in the reserve or adjacent areas after being informed that there have been death of 10 tigers in MP since the beginning of 2026, 6 of them in Shahdol division and Bandhavgarh tiger reserve located in the division. None of the deaths have been due to natural causes but due to electrocution or other unnatural causes.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey on 54 deaths of tigers in MP, the tiger state, in the year 2025, the highest since the beginning of Project Tiger in 1973.

After being apprised of 10 more deaths of tigers in 2026, the bench comprising chief justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf asked the field director, Bandhavgarh tiger reserve to present a detailed report in the court as majority of deaths have taken place in Bandhavgarh or adjacent areas.

Dubey in his petition said that out of the world-wide population of 5421 tigers, 3176 are in India and 785 in MP. It's referred to as the tiger state but death of tigers in MP has been on a rise. In 2022, 43 tigers had died, 45 in the subsequent year and 46 in 2024 but in 2025, the number of tiger deaths in MP went up to 54. The tigers are dying in suspicious and mysterious circumstances. According to official data of Bandhavgarh tiger reserve, 57 percent of the tiger deaths were unnatural, the reason of death being poaching, electrocution or other factors. Presence of poachers inside safe tiger reserves is a matter of grave concern. The sleuths of MP State Tiger Strike Force and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in a joint operation arrested Yangchen Lachungpa the kingpin of an international poaching gang from the international border in Sikkim recently. The poachers are using live electric wires to kill the tigers inside the area of tiger reserves and the surveillance and intelligence system of the forest department have failed to control the menace.

Following hearing of the case on Wednesday, counsel appearing for the central government sought 4 weeks time to file a reply on the petition but the court only gave 2 weeks for the purpose while seeking a report from field director, Bandhavgarh tiger reserve, on tiger deaths in and around Bandhavgarh. Senior counsel Aditya Sanghi appeared in the hearing for the petitioner.