Jabalpur: Expressing concern over the increase in tiger deaths, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Union and state governments, seeking their response.
The court was hearing a petition filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey which claimed that 54 tigers died in the state in 2025, the highest mortality in a single year since the inception of Project Tiger, and more than half of these deaths were due to unnatural causes.
Taking a serious view of the issue, a division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf sought responses from the forest and environment departments of the Central and state governments, as well as the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
As per the petition, the total tiger population in the world is 5,421, of which 3,167 are in India. As much as 25 percent of this population, or 785 tigers, are in Madhya Pradesh.
Despite being called the “Tiger State,” 54 striped felines died in Madhya Pradesh in 2025, compared to 43 in 2022, 45 in 2023, and 46 in 2024, the petition said.
As many as 57 per cent of these deaths were due to unnatural causes including conflict, electrocution or unknown circumstances.
Senior advocates Aditya Sanghi and Alka Singh appeared for the petitioner.
The division bench appointed advocate Sanghi as amicus curiae to assist the court in another petition related to tiger poaching. The two petitions would be heard jointly.