Mumbai: Even as conservation success stories are often celebrated, the grim reality inside Maharashtra’s forests tells a painful tale — 41 tigers perished in 2025, casting a long shadow over the State’s wildlife protection efforts.
Replying in the Assembly on Wednesday, State Forest Minister Ganesh Naik revealed that 28 of these majestic big cats died due to natural causes. However, the remaining deaths expose a darker and more disturbing pattern, eight killed in accidents, four electrocuted, and one falling prey to poachers.
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Each number represents not just a statistic, but the silent extinction of a powerful predator that stands as a symbol of India’s ecological pride.
One of the most vulnerable stretches remains the Ballarshah–Gondia railway line, which cuts through dense forest divisions and sensitive buffer zones of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve and Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve. Between 2011 and 2025, five tigers were run over on this route alone, a chilling reminder of the deadly interface between development and wilderness.
Naik informed the House that the Chief Conservator of Forests, Chandrapur, has formally urged the Railway Department to implement urgent safeguards. Proposed measures include constructing wildlife underpasses and overpasses along new railway lines, enforcing a strict 40 kmph speed limit for trains passing through sensitive forest corridors, and ensuring proper disposal of food waste to prevent animals from being lured onto the tracks.
While conservation initiatives have successfully boosted wildlife numbers, this very success has created new challenges. As tiger populations grow, so does migration into unfamiliar territories, increasing the risk of railway accidents, electrocution, and human-wildlife conflict.
In response, the government has proposed recruiting 368 personnel on a contractual basis for Rapid Rescue Units, Tiger Cells, and Elephant Tracking Teams, subject to financial approval.
The minister also detailed intensified surveillance mechanisms. Field staff are using the M-Stripes mobile monitoring system to track suspicious activity. A strengthened Wildlife Crime Cell in Nagpur and a Cyber Cell in Melghat are working to trace poachers through digital footprints. Plans are underway to deploy Special Tiger Protection Forces, dog squads, and metal detectors to locate iron traps near forest water bodies.
District-level tiger committees are reportedly meeting regularly to reassess protection strategies, while a “Secret Service Fund” is being utilised to maintain informant networks at the forest range level.
Yet, despite technology, manpower, and policy assurances, the loss of 41 tigers in a single year serves as a stark and sobering reminder: Maharashtra’s forests may be expanding in numbers, but the battle to safeguard its most iconic predator remains far from won.
A dedicated Wildlife Crime Cell has been strengthened in Nagpur, while a Cyber Cell in Melghat is utilising digital footprints to track poachers.
Deployment of Special Tiger Protection Forces , dog squads, and the use of metal detectors to find iron traps near water holes are being considered, Naik said.
The minister assured the House that district-level tiger committees are meeting regularly to refine protection strategies and that a ‘Secret Service Fund’ is being utilised to maintain a network of informants at the range level.
