Overview
- In an affidavit to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the state reported 55 tiger deaths in 2025—69% natural, 20% from electrocution linked to illegal connections, and six confirmed poaching cases.
- The filing flagged constraints on forest officers’ access to telecom data for wildlife crime probes and proposed a dedicated legal cell with additional prosecutors to strengthen cases.
- A Bandhavgarh status report to the court logged eight deaths between November 2025 and February 24, 2026, with four natural deaths inside the reserve and four electrocutions in adjoining forests, and no evidence of poaching.
- Reserve authorities asked the electricity department to conduct technical audits, install insulated aerial cables at key crossings and add pole spike guards after identifying hazardous lines across core and buffer zones.
- Maharashtra told its Assembly that 41 tigers died in 2025—28 natural, eight in accidents, four by electrocution and one to poaching—while seeking rail underpasses or overpasses, a 40 kmph cap in sensitive stretches of the Ballarshah–Gondia line, and bolstered staffing and monitoring tools.