55 tigers dead in Madhya Pradesh in 2025, highest since Project Tiger was launched more than half century ago

Officials estimate that 11 of the 55 tiger deaths this year were due to unnatural causes. Of these, an estimated eight were killed by electrocution, largely from illegal traps laid by villagers to protect crops from wild animals.

Forest department officials maintain that a majority of the deaths were due to natural causes and are a consequence of an expanding tiger population. According to senior officials, increased territorial conflicts, age-related mortality and disease are expected outcomes in a landscape with higher tiger density.

According to the report, ‘Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India 2022’, there were 785 tigers in the state at the time.

The latest casualty, a male tiger estimated to be between eight and ten years old, was discovered in Bundelkhand’s Sagar region. According to officials, the carcass was spotted near Hilgan village under the Dhana range of the South Forest Division on Sunday.

Residents informed the Forest Department, prompting officials to establish a security cordon and call veterinarians to the scene. Senior forest officials said “no external injury marks were found during preliminary examination, though a post-mortem is being conducted to determine the cause of death”.

The department is investigating the tiger’s movement patterns and whether it had been present in the Dhana range previously, with officials speculating the animal may have dispersed from the nearby Nauradehi Tiger Reserve.

Divisional forest officer Varun Yadav said, “The carcass was discovered in a forest area where tigers have not been documented previously. The animal appeared to be a fully grown male, approximately eight years old. All body parts were intact with no visible external injuries, and no bloodstains were observed on the carcass or in the immediate vicinity.”

Wildlife sources said the investigation is focused on whether this tiger, too, died after coming in contact with an electric fence, and its body was later dumped at the spot.

Electric fencing represents one of the most insidious threats to dispersing tigers. Farmers, facing crop losses from wild boars, nilgai, and other herbivores, string live electrical wires around fields, often using direct current rather than low-voltage solar chargers. These crude systems lack safety cutoffs and can deliver fatal shocks to any animal that touches them.

The mounting toll has prompted unprecedented action from the highest levels of the state’s forest bureaucracy. Taking serious note of the rising deaths, V N Ambade, head of the Madhya Pradesh forest department, recently wrote a stern letter to all senior forest officers across the state, directing them to treat wildlife protection as a priority and warning that negligence will not be tolerated.

In his communication to all chief conservators of forests, field directors of tiger reserves, divisional forest officers, and the director of Van Vihar National Park, Ambade pointed out that despite repeated instructions, the number of tiger and leopard deaths has increased in recent months, with animals dying due to electrocution, road and rail accidents, and other avoidable causes.