Bandhavgarh reserve lost 8 tigers in 2.5 months: Report to HC
Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve lost eight tigers, including four due to electrocution, over two and a half months spanning 2025 and early 2026, according to a report submitted to the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
The status report submitted by the field director of the protected forest said that four tigers died within the tiger reserve, and as many lost their lives in the “general forest area”.
The cause of death for all four tigers within the tiger reserve was natural, while electrocution killed the remaining four in the general forest area, the report said, adding that the carcasses of all the big cats were completely intact.
The report was submitted to a division bench of the HC on Wednesday in response to a petition that claimed big cat deaths under suspicious circumstances in MP’s forests.
The court directed the petitioners to submit a response to the status report and scheduled the next hearing for March 25.
As per the report, eight tigers died in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve between November 21, 2025, and February 2 this year.
Inside the reserve, two tigers died due to mutual conflicts. While one big cat drowned in a well, another succumbed to a disease, it said. In the forest area, four tigers were killed due to electrocution, it said.
Sharing information about power lines inside the core and buffer zones, the report said letters have been sent periodically to the electricity department to strengthen power lines and adhere to wildlife protection standards in sensitive areas of the tiger reserve.
It also provided information regarding patrolling. The Government also submitted a response to the main petition.
Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey had filed the petition.
According to the petition, the tiger population in the world is 5,421, of which 3,167 are in India. As per the latest census, Madhya Pradesh has 785 tigers, it said. Despite being a tiger state, 54 tigers died in Madhya Pradesh in 2025, said the petition. The State had reported 43 tiger deaths in 2022, 45 in 2023, and 46 in 2024, Dubey said. The highest number of tiger deaths in the state since the launch of Project Tiger occurred in 2025, the petitioner claimed.
India launched Project Tiger in 1973 to protect and increase the dwindling population of Bengal tigers. MP has nine tiger reserves, including Kanha, Pench, Bandhavgarh, Panna, Satpura, Sanjay-Dhubri, Veerangana, Durgavati, Ratapani and Madhav.
Six tigers died in the state in the first week of this year alone, Dubey said.
Though the Government declared that tiger numbers have gone up, big cats are dying mysteriously and often under suspicious circumstances in the forests, the petition said, adding that forest officials attribute such losses to territorial conflicts.
Wildlife experts believe that a large number of leopards are being killed in the state, along with tigers, the petition said. Poachers are operating within the reserve using electric wires, and the Forest Department’s surveillance and intelligence systems are failing, the petitioner claimed.
During the last hearing, the petitioner informed the HC that 10 tigers had died in the state so far this year, including seven in Bandhavgarh. Most of these deaths were due to electrocution and other unnatural causes, Dubey had said.
Following the hearing, the court had directed the field director of the Bandhavgarh reserve to submit a detailed report regarding the tiger deaths, the petitioner said.
