Forest officials and animal conservationists are alarmed over the recent spate of tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh, home to more than 500 big cats.
A tiger was found dead at Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district. This is the fifth case in less than two weeks.
We take a look at what’s happening in the state and what could be the cause of the deaths of the big cats.
Recent tiger deaths
On Sunday, a forest patrolling team spotted the carcass of a tiger in the Kurai range. On investigations, it was found that the dead tiger was around two years in age.
According to a report by PTI, officials believe that the tiger was killed in a fight with another adult tiger. The officials found the dead tiger's front legs and teeth were intact, while the tail and hind legs were found nearby.
Prior to this, another tiger was found dead in Lalbarra area of Balaghat district on 3 April.
In this case too, the two-year-old feline was believed to have died in a territorial fight with another tiger.
The Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Balaghat, Narendra Kumar Sanodia had said that the carcass had a number of injury marks, leading them to believe that it was a territorial issue.
Besides this, a tiger cub and an adult feline were found dead in Satpura Tiger Reserve of Narmadapuram district on 2 April and 3 April. These two were also believed to have been killed in territorial fights.
Another tiger found dead in Pench Tiger Reserve, MP.
Suspected to be killed by another tiger in a territorial fight. The adult ate most of the carcass.
This is the 5th tiger death in Madhya Pradesh in last 15 days.
Taking tiger death toll of 2022 to 41. https://t.co/MVuo2G6YwH
— Siddharth 🇮🇳 (@sidduu96) April 11, 2022
The first in the recent spate of deaths was reported on 30 March when a tiger was found dead on a highway in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni district. Forest officials had said that the feline was suspected to have been hit by a speeding vehicle.
Territorial behaviour
Of the recent deaths, four can be attributed to territorial fights. For those who don’t know, tigers are territorial and usually solitary in nature.
Mayukh Chatterjee, who worked with the Wildlife Trust of India, explained to Roundglass, average minimum territory size for a female tiger is around 15-20 square km, though some studies have suggested it could be closer to 10 square km in some places. For males, territories can go up to 100 square km or more.
Tigers are believed to have mental maps of their area. There are various considerations that the animals take when deciding their territory. In addition to the density of prey, females also take into consideration, aspects such as availability of denning sites and water. For the males, they will also see how many mates they can find in one particular area.
Why so many territorial conflicts?
The 2018 tiger census had revealed that India was home to 2,967 tigers, up from 1,411 in 2006 when the government began aggressive conservation efforts.
While everyone commended the numbers, experts flagged the issue of the ‘number trap’. They flagged that while the number of wild cats was increasing, their habitats weren’t increasing. This, according to them, could lead to a rise in conflicts — which is what is happening in Madhya Pradesh.
Also read: India saw record 126 tiger deaths in 2021, highest in a decade: NTCA
The shrinking habitat for tigers also makes them more vulnerable to poachers, experts have said. They say that as more and more tigers are packed into a small area—being territorial by nature, many of them find little cover to hide, while some seek out shelter near or in human settlements, thereby becoming easy prey for hunters.
Tiger deaths in 2022
Till date, India has already lost 41 tigers in 2022. Madhya Pradesh tops the list of tiger deaths with 15 deaths. Maharashtra comes second with 10 tiger deaths, while Karnataka was in third place with six tiger deaths.
The death count of tigers in Madhya Pradesh has remained higher than other states despite the state government spending a significant amount of money every year for conservation, security and monitoring.
As per the state government report, around Rs 28.3 lakh was spent during 2018-19, while this amount was increased to Rs 22.49 lakh in 2019-20. Similarly, the state government spent Rs 26.42 lakh and Rs 12.88 lakh in the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively.
With inputs from agencies
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