Jabalpur, Feb 11 Taking a serious view of the alarming spike in tiger fatalities, particularly over the past few months, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed the state government and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to submit a detailed report on the matter by February 25.
The court issued the order while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, who has raised concerns over the death of 54 tigers -- the highest in a single year in the country -- in 2025, and the nine fatalities of big cats reported since January this year in Madhya Pradesh.
Senior advocate Aditya Sanghi, who presented detailed data regarding the deaths of tigers in the state, told IANS that the court also issued a stringent direction to the Field Director of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) to submit a detailed investigative report by February 25.
"The state government and the NTCA were supposed to submit their reply on the matter today; however, they requested more time. During the hearing, I submitted before the court that in the first month of 2026 alone, nine more tigers were killed in suspicious circumstances, most of them under the jurisdiction of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR)," Sanghi told IANS.
He further added: "Recognising the gravity and urgency of the situation, the bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva directed the BTR's Field Director to submit a report with a comprehensive explanation for the loss of tigers in such significant numbers."
During the arguments, senior counsel Sanghi contended that rampant poaching is currently plaguing the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. He argued that forest authorities have remained complacent and have frequently attributed these deaths to "territorial infighting" to mask what he described as a grimmer reality.
The petitioner alleged that the primary drivers behind the decline in the tiger population are organised poaching and the electrocution of tigers, asserting that the authorities are "sleeping over" the crisis rather than implementing rigorous anti-poaching measures.
After hearing the arguments on Wednesday, the court ordered the concerned authorities to file their reply at the next hearing scheduled for February 25.
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