Even as Madhya Pradesh embarks on the nationwide tiger census, the state finds itself confronting a deeply unsettling reality — an unprecedented surge in tiger mortality. With 48 deaths reported in the first eleven months of 2025 — the highest for any state this year — the mounting toll has sent ripples of concern through India’s wildlife community and cast a stark spotlight on the condition of the state’s tiger reserves and the resilience of its protection mechanisms.
According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the death count has already eclipsed last year’s figure of 47, itself a record at the time. If current trends continue, the toll is expected to cross 50 before the year closes, marking the most fatal year for tigers in Madhya Pradesh in over a decade. Particularly distressing is the loss of several tigresses in the prime reproductive age bracket of five to eight years — individuals whose breeding potential is central to sustaining the species’ long-term viability. Their deaths represent not merely numerical loss, but a significant erosion of future population strength.
An analysis of mortality data since 2013 underscores the gravity of the trend. While the state reported only 11 deaths in 2013, the numbers have escalated in successive years, ultimately culminating in this year’s unprecedented spike. Since the last tiger census in 2022 — which recorded 785 tigers and reaffirmed Madhya Pradesh’s distinction as the country’s Tiger State — a staggering 172 tigers have died.
This trajectory threatens to cast a shadow over the forthcoming census and may alter the state’s hard-won ecological prestige. Equally disquieting is the fact that a majority of this year’s deaths — 29 so far — have occurred inside tiger reserves, the very landscapes designed as sanctuaries for these apex predators.
Forest officials attribute many of the fatalities to intensified territorial conflicts, a consequence of rising tiger densities in reserves such as Kanha and Pench, where growing populations have compressed territorial boundaries and heightened competition. As dominant males assert control, weaker individuals are often pushed into peripheral or unprotected zones where risks multiply. While Bandhavgarh has historically recorded the highest mortality, Kanha and Pench have emerged as new epicentres of concern, signalling shifting fault lines within the state’s conservation geography.
Overlaying these ecological pressures is the darker threat of poaching, with several cases detected this year, suggesting that wildlife crime networks remain active and opportunistic, exploiting lapses in surveillance. Conservationists argue that while Madhya Pradesh’s rising tiger numbers are a testament to previous successes, they also demand significantly stronger and more technologically equipped monitoring frameworks, enhanced patrolling capacities, and swift institutional responses to emerging risks.
