17 August 2023

Nagpur: With one more tiger death reported on Wednesday due to suspected electrocution, Maharashtra’s tiger toll has touched 28 in the last 7.5 months.

Data available on the official website of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) shows there have been 21 tiger deaths in Maharashtra. However, the number doesn’t include the four tigers that were poached by Bawaria tribals this year in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts. The NTCA tiger toll also doesn’t include the death of a tiger that died in a road accident at Murdoli near Nagzira last week, and the one that was found dead on Wednesday.

With these deaths, the state now tops the chart in the number of tiger deaths in the country followed by neighbouring Madhya Pradesh with 27 deaths during the same period. The two states are followed by Uttarakhand (15), Kerala (11), Assam (10), and Karnataka (10).

On Wednesday, a decomposed tiger carcass was found hidden in a paddy field in Khandal village under the Tumsar forest range in Bhandara division. Police patil Kamlesh Bhardwar got a tip off that a tiger was killed and its carcass was hidden in the agricultural field in survey number 188.

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