After Reclaiming Tag of 'Tiger State', 3 Big Cat Deaths in 72 Hours Put Madhya Pradesh in the Spot Again

Umaira: Basking in the glory of reclaiming the tag of ‘Tiger State’ after nine years, the news isn’t good for Madhya Pradesh as it lost three big cats, including a tigress, in the last 72 hours.

In the latest casualty, body of a cub aged around 15 to 18 months was found in Ghunghuti forest range in Umaria district on Tuesday evening. Since no injury mark was found on the cub’s body during the autopsy, the locals suggest it could have died of a possible snake bite.

On Sunday evening, bodies of a tigress and her 10-month-old cub were recovered by the forest officials in Kallawah range inside the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve in Umaria district, around 500km from Bhopal. The duo was reportedly killed in an assault by an adult male.

Another male cub of the dead tigress was rescued by the reserve officers on Tuesday.

However, the officials are clueless about the male tiger which killed them.

Madhya Pradesh which boasted of having maximum number of tigers in the country had lost out this status to Karnataka in 2010. On Monday, the state however roared back to number one spot as the state in Tiger Census 2018 has recorded 526 striped felines.

Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, one of the most densely populated home to tigers in Madhya Pradesh, has been managing affairs without a full-time field director for the last four months when the then FD Mradul Pathak retired. Deputy Director Siddarth Gupta reportedly met with an accident a month ago and has been on leave since then.

Chief Conservator of Forest Shahdol AK Joshi has been taking care of the reserve as his additional responsibility.

Even the Kallawah range, where the tigress and cub were found dead on Monday, does not have a full-time ranger and is taken care of by a deputy ranger.

U Prakasham, the Chief Wildlife Warden of MP could not be reached for comments on the recent tiger mortalities.

Madhya Pradesh, according to the figures of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTC), has lost 141 tigers from 2012 to 2017. In a reply to BJP MLA Vishwas Sarang’s query in MP assembly, forest minister Umang Singhar had on July 20 said that Madhya Pradesh had lost 23 tigers from Oct 1, 2018 to June 2019.