Five men from a tribal community in Madhya Pradesh were forced to squat on the ground as forest officials stood around them: the main accused and his friends, who were arrested for poaching tigers (allegedly poisoning a tiger that was feeding on his cattle). They were also made to hold banners with their names boldly printed on them for the cameras. This time they were not chained, as is often the custom. It was a trophy for the forest department: they caught the tribal tiger poachers.
The carcass of a radio-collared tigress buried in a pit near the Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR) in Madhya Pradesh was unearthed by forest officials on March 27 this year. The tigress died almost a month ago.
It now emerges that in 2025 Madhya Pradesh, the state with the largest tiger population in the country, will see 55 tiger deaths, the highest number since Project Tiger began in 1973. Of these, 15 were “unnatural deaths” – those caused by human intervention such as poaching, poisoning, electrocution or road and rail accidents, which account for a significant percentage of the total death 27.
‘serious questions’
The strange story of the death of this particular tigress has been the subject of recent debate among several conservationists across the country. Ajay Dubey, an environmental activist, doesn’t buy the argument that it was a retaliatory killing of forest dwellers for the loss of cattle, but that it was an opium syndicate (the body was found near an opium field).
In a PIL he filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Mr Dubey said the deaths in the state’s tiger reserves were “shocking… and shows that these incidents occurred due to negligence on the part of the officers concerned”. The tigers die “under mysterious and often suspicious circumstances, raising serious questions about conservation, enforcement and accountability,” the PIL said.
He pointed out that autopsies were conducted without video footage, forensic investigations were incomplete, and deaths were routinely classified as the result of territorial battles without thorough investigation.
The state responded to the PIL: in an affidavit before the Supreme Court, it admitted the legal constraints that come in the way of forest officials investigating organized wildlife crime, especially when it comes to digital coordination and transnational networks.
Forest dwellers as “inferior”
Meanwhile, Chief Wildlife Warden Subharanjan Sen told the media, “Every tiger death is considered a case of poaching unless there is clear evidence to the contrary. In cases of poaching, be it deliberate or accidental, “we leave no stone unturned to ensure that the culprits are punished,” he added.
But Gargi Sharma, a PhD student at the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, said: “In my personal opinion, it is disturbing to treat all tiger deaths as poaching. Under the Wildlife Act, the burden of proof is on the accused. I question whether this is a way of procedurally harassing people and creating an environment of fear between communities.” She told The Hindu that the dominant discourse in conservation “likens poaching to a war on biodiversity”.
This particular case in Madhya Pradesh symbolizes the nation’s colonial legacy of “protecting fortresses, where tribes and their activities are portrayed as wild, uncouth and causing environmental destruction, while the activities of the rich have been portrayed as scientific,” Ms Sharma added.
‘colonial thinking’
This broad brushstroke also strips poaching of its social reality: it prevents us from answering why people participate in poaching, she explained. “Culturally, India has a rich history of ritual hunting, especially in animistic societies. And when it comes to poaching, it brings a source of money to impoverished tribal people who live on the margins and have lost their sovereignty. Their marginalization should be fought by the government.”
Nitin Rai, an independent researcher, told The Hindu that the forest department’s perspective is illogical and inhumane and typical of a “colonial and racial mindset”. He added: “The narrative that tigers, like diamonds, are ‘forever’ has been ingrained in the minds of elite society. Criminalizing a large section of society simply because they live in the forests or are poor reflects the deep rot of the state’s protectionist regime.”
During colonial times, they were used as labor on forest plantations, said Dr. Rai. Recently, in a conservation regime that does not need their work, the forest dwellers have become expendable and their presence in the forests is considered undesirable, he added. “The caste nature of Indian society continues to play a role in perceiving the forest dwellers as inferior and therefore a problem to be solved by any force.”
People-centered protection
Ms Sharma called for a “people-centred conservation model”, where local communities decide the fate of their forests and have an active say in their management. “First, all rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) must be addressed. Second, the local constitution of the forest force should have a provision for local people to be permanent employees,” she said.
Under the FRA, central to rethinking India’s forest governance and conservation, gram sabhas are being empowered to take control of their forests, said Dr. Rai, “and define both ecological scales and governance structures for forest management.”
It is not just the economic loss when a tiger kills livestock, but the lack of agency of local people who are unable to deal with the presence of tigers in the area due to alienation from their forests, said Dr. Rai. “There has been a turning point in relation to the forest and its management, which is now manifesting itself in various ways, including poisoning and other strategies to hit the state that is causing this alienation,” he said.
divya.gandhi@thehindu.co.in
Published – 05 Apr 2026 07:45 IST
