Tiger poisoned to death near Satpura Reserve; five arrested

A tiger from Madhya Pradesh’s Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR) has been allegedly poisoned to death leading to arrest of five people in the case, officials said on Saturday (March 28, 2026). 

According to officials, the decomposed body of the female tiger was found buried outside the Reserve’s boundary in the Sangakheda range of the West Chhindwara Division after which the forest officials swung into action. 

Speaking to The Hindu, Satpura Field Director Rakhi Nanda said that the tiger had been rehabilitated from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in 2018 and had setup its territory outside the STR boundaries. The tiger was wearing a radio collar for monitoring. 

Ms. Nanda said that the tiger had killed the main accused’s oxen after which he along with some other locals mixed urea in the kill. 

“The accused is also involved in illegal opium cultivation and as per the interrogation, he was scared that the forest teams may reach his farm while tracing the animal’s collar which is why he killed the tiger,” she said, adding that the accused also burnt the collar. 

The official said that the accused have been remanded to judicial custody.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, however, alleges negligence on the part of forest officials and claims that the collar had been stationary since March 3. 

“Typically, an alert is issued if a collared tiger hasn’t moved for eight hours but in this case, no action was taken for weeks. And even if a tiger kills cattle, it is the responsibility of the forest department to create awareness that the owner will be given compensation,” he said. 

“What is the point of such expensive technology if it does not help protect animals,” Mr. Dubey added. 

He also raised suspicions that “some body parts were missing from the decomposed carcass”.

Ms. Nanda, however, said that since the tiger had “well established” its territory, regular monitoring through collar had been stopped. 

“We had already written to the World Wild Fund (India) to get it removed and had gotten a confirmation on the same on March 19 and since now the collars can also be removed remotely, we assumed that it had been dropped,” she said. 

“Still, we sent a team to check on the tiger and retrieve the collar on March 25 after which we found the body on March 27 morning,” she said, adding that the accused were held within hours.