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

A sub-adult tiger was electrocuted and its carcass was dumped into a well in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, taking the number of big cat deaths in the state to 25 since January, a forest department official said on Monday. A man from whose farm well the carcass was recovered on Sunday has been arrested, and further investigation was underway, he said. The tiger, aged one-and-a-half to two years, was electrocuted in a revenue area under the South Seoni forest division, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) L Krishnamoorthy told PTI over phone. Post-mortem examination of the carcass was conduced as per National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines, he said. Madhya Pradesh, which had 785 tigers as per the 2022 census -- the highest for a state in the country -- has recorded 11 tiger deaths, including cubs, since April 2, when a big cat was found dead in Burhanpur district. 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 said. Madhya Pradesh is home to nine tiger reserves.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)