State lost 160 tigers in five yrs, 41 either electrocuted or killed in road accidents

Nagpur: Road accidents and electrocution are the two major threats to tigers. In the last 5.5 years (2019-2024), 160 tigers died in Maharashtra. Of these, 21 died in road hits while 20 died due to electrocution, and 22 died due to poisoning and after getting entangled in wire snares.
Information received from the forest department under the RTI Act by social activist Abhay Kolarkar reveals that 17 tigers died in 2019, 18 in 2020, 32 in 2021, 29 in 2022, 49 in 2023, and 15 in the first five months of 2024.

Kolarkar said that it seems that nearly 40% tigers die due to unnatural reasons. Even though the tiger death data is only for the last five years, the forest department says nine mysterious tiger deaths are still under investigation.
“These are the number of deaths that have come to light officially, but there may be many tiger electrocution cases that may not be exposed ever. Farmers illegally power farm fences to stop crop damage by herbivores, but when a tiger gets killed, the culprits destroy evidence. Many are involved in killing wild animals for bush meat,” said Kolarkar.
Dinesh Khate, president of the Habitat Conservation Society (HCS), Chandrapur, echoes the same feeling. “Last month, a tiger electrocution case was uncovered after six months in Mul taluka. The matter came to light due to a quarrel between a farmer couple. Many prominent tigers in the Tadoba landscape have not been sighted or recorded for a long time. The fate of these tigers is still unknown. The Saoli case is not the first. Many tiger electrocution cases in Chandrapur district have been exposed after differences arose between vested interests,” Khate said.
Kolarkar said the number of tiger deaths in road hits is alarming. Though wildlife underpasses and overpasses have been constructed on NH-7 (Nagpur-Jabalpur) cutting the Pench-Kanha corridor, and NH-6 (Sakoli-Deori) cutting the Navegaon-Nagzira corridor, Khadsangi near Tadoba, and Samruddhi E-way have been taken, many critical stretches near tiger reserves have been left out.
National Green Tribunal (NGT), principal bench, Delhi, took suo motu cognizance of a TOI report — ‘String of road projects cutting Tadoba corridor’ in November 2018 — and directed the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) on Jan 6, 2020, to construct 26 underpasses on seven road patches in the Tadoba landscape as suggested by an expert panel. However, the PWD is yet to honour the NGT order, inviting contempt.
“Nearly four years after the NGT order, only one 750m underpass at Khadsangi in north Tadoba, is in place. Wildlife mitigation measures are still not in place near Saighata in the Bramhapuri-Umred-Karhandla tiger corridor, near Ghodazari sanctuary, and between Nilaj Phata-Paoni-Adyal-Bhandara tiger corridor,” said Khate.