Another tiger dies in Bandhavgarh reserve in Madhya Pradesh, second death in a week

The carcass of a male tiger was found in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) on Wednesday, the second death of a big cat in the protected forest in the past week, an official said on Wednesday.

A patrolling team spotted the dead tiger in Tala beat of BTR, said Lakhan Lal Uike, chief conservator of forest (CCF) and in-charge field director of the reserve.

The carcass of the tiger, aged around 5-7 years, had teeth marks on the body, he said.

Prima facie it seems that the death was caused by a fight with another tiger, the official said.

On September 15, the decomposed and headless carcass of a tiger was found in BTR’s Patehra beat, an official said earlier. It was disposed of as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines. The viscera would be sent to a laboratory for examination, a release had said then.

In the recent census, the number of tigers in Madhya Pradesh rose to 785 in 2022 from 526 in 2018.

As per the report Status of Tigers: Co-predators & Prey in India-2022, released by the NTCA and Wildlife Institute of India in July this year, MP has the highest number of tigers in the country, followed by Karnataka (563) and Uttarakhand (560).