The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Union government, the state government, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), expressing concern over a sharp rise in tiger deaths in the state and seeking their response on the matter.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, who flagged an alarming rise in tiger mortality in Madhya Pradesh — widely known as the “Tiger State” for housing the highest number of tigers in India.
According to the petition, 54 tigers died in Madhya Pradesh in 2025, the highest recorded in any single year since the launch of Project Tiger in 1973. The plea also points out that this is a worrying increase from 43 tiger deaths in 2022, 45 in 2023, and 46 in 2024.
The petitioner submitted that over 57% of the deaths in 2025 were due to “unnatural causes,” which include human-wildlife conflict, electrocution, and other unexplained or suspicious circumstances.
The petition cited global and national statistics, noting that of the estimated 5,421 tigers worldwide, India is home to 3,167. Madhya Pradesh alone accounts for 785 of these — nearly 25% of the national total.
Given the state’s central role in tiger conservation, the spike in tiger mortality poses a significant threat to the country’s conservation goals, the petitioner argued.
Taking serious note of the allegations, the bench sought responses from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
Senior advocates Aditya Sanghi and Alka Singh appeared on behalf of the petitioner. During the hearing, the High Court appointed Aditya Sanghi as amicus curiae in a related matter involving tiger poaching. The court also ordered that both cases — the present PIL and the earlier poaching-related petition — be heard together.
The matter will now proceed with inputs from the concerned authorities. The date for the next hearing has not yet been announced.
