1st case of close-range poaching of tiger emerges at Madhya Pradesh sanctuary

A forensic report has confirmed that a tiger found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary in July this year was shot multiple times in its face. This is the first case where a tiger was shot from a very close range.

On July 13, wildlife activist Ajay Dubey alerted had the forest department that a tiger was shot dead in the sanctuary. The officials later found the carcass in a decomposed state. It was found that skin had been removed from the carcass. “This is the first such case of a tiger being shot from a close range. On July 13, I got the tip from my sources that a tiger was shot dead. The bullets were found lodged in the skull. The forensic report vindicated my claim about the tiger being shot. It was a complete intelligence failure of the Madhya Pradesh forest department,” Dubey told The Tribune.

He added that the weapons used for poaching were delicate. “This points to the involvement of the poaching syndicate,” he said. Two suspects were arrested in the case and guns were also seized from them. The forest department will now charge them in connection with the tiger’s death. Even as the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) gave clearance to declare Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve, the Madhya Pradesh government has been dragging its feet. The sanctuary has 56 tigers. The Environment Ministry had in 2015, 2016, 2022 and 2024 asked the Madhya Pradesh Government to expedite the process to notify the sanctuary as a tiger reserve.

In 2019, former MP CM Kamal Nath took steps to issue the notification of the reserve but it was not approved by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government that came to power in March 2020. Once a sanctuary is declared as a reserve, the area is strictly prohibited from entries and the manpower to protect the reserve also gets increased. No construction activities can be carried around tiger reserves.

Country to get 56th tiger reserve in C’garh

• India will get its 56th tiger reserve after the notification of Guru Ghasidas National Park as a tiger sanctuary in Chhattisgarh
• The Chhattisgarh Government will notify the tiger reserve by November 13, the state recently told the High Court
• Guru Ghasidas National Park was the last known habitat of the Asiatic cheetah in the country until it went extinct in 1951