Tiger electrocuted in Seoni district; 25th big cat death in MP since January

A sub-adult tiger was found electrocuted, and its carcass dumped into a farm well in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, taking the number of big cat deaths in the state to 25 since January, forest officials said on Monday.

A sub-adult tiger was found electrocuted, and its carcass dumped into a farm well in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, taking the number of big cat deaths in the state to 25 since January, forest officials said on Monday. The farmer, who owns the well, has been arrested, a day after the carcass was recovered. Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) L Krishnamoorthy told PTI that the tiger, aged around one-and-a-half to two years, was electrocuted in a revenue area under the South Seoni forest division. Postmortem of the carcass was conducted as per National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines. Officials said field-level inquiry found evidence of electrocution, with burnt wires, pegs, and other electrical material recovered from a spot about 50 metres from the well. Sub-divisional forest officer Yogesh Kumar Patel said the carcass was dumped into the well after electrocution by unidentified persons. The carcass was spotted on April 26 by labourers working in a farmer's field, who alerted authorities. Patel said the forest department has announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for information leading to the arrest of those involved. The farmer and other suspects are being questioned. The first tiger death this year was reported on January 7 in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, and since then, 24 more big cats, including cubs, have died, officials have said. Overall, Madhya Pradesh, which had 785 tigers as per a 2022 Census and the highest in the country, has lost 25 big cats, including cubs, since January 7, when the first death was reported in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. Among the 25 fatalities, eleven tigers, including three cubs, have died since April 2, when a big cat was found dead in the forested area of Burhanpur, according to officials. The state is home to nine tiger reserves. Reacting to the electrocution of the tiger in Seoni, noted wildlife activist Ajay Dubey alleged poaching, terming the incident ''highly shocking and alarming''. ''Forest officials should have intensified patrolling in forests across the state after three cubs died in five days in the core area of the Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) in Mandla. They seem least concerned about protecting wildlife,'' he added. Three tiger cubs have died in the Sarhi zone of KTR in the past six days, officials had said.