Four of 8 Bandhavgarh tigers died due to electrocution in 2 months, state govt tells Madhya Pradesh high court

JABALPUR/BHOPAL: Among the eight tigers that died in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in about two months between Nov 21, 2025 and Feb 2 this year, two died due to territorial fight inside the reserve while four that ventured out died of electrocution, BTR field director said in a status report presented before a division bench of MP high court on Wednesday. Earlier, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) over spurt in death of tigers in Madhya Pradesh, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf had sought a status report from the BTR field director after eight tiger deaths were reported in just over two months. The report, however, has denied the charge by petitioner Ajay Dubey that poachers were active inside the reserve. The court deferred the hearing of the case till Mar 25, while giving the petitioner a chance to file a rejoinder. The field director said that among the four tigers that died inside the reserve, two died due to territorial fight, one due to drowning and the remaining one due to a disease. The report said that the tigers that strayed into the territorial forest in revenue areas adjoining the reserve died due to electrocution.

Three of them died due to electrocution by open live electric wires and one died after it got entangled in a solar-powered electric fence. In these cases, the offenders were identified and arrested, the report said. In his petition Dubey said that there have been 54 tiger deaths in MP in 2025, the highest since the beginning of Project Tiger in 1973. Besides, there have been 10 more deaths in 2026. Alleging that deaths of tigers has been on the rise in MP, the petitioner said 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.