Bhopal: Widely recognised as India’s richest wildlife state, Madhya Pradesh has reported as many as 50 human casualties so far this year.
According to latest statistics available with the state forest department, 22 of those human casualties were caused by tigers (MP is also India’s Tiger State), eight by wild boars, seven by elephants and four by sloth bears, while just casualty was caused by leopard.
Out of the 50 casualties, at least 16 were girls and women, while the remaining were boys and men.
Maximum 30 fatalities were reported in three months – March (7 deaths), April (13 deaths) and May (10 deaths) – when the humans, mostly tribal population, frequent forest areas for Tendu leaves and Mahua flower collection.
Among the 22 human casualties caused by tigers, maximum 14 deaths occurred in the densely forested Mahakoshal region, particularly parts of Seoni region (which is famous as land of Jungle Book’s Mowgli), while seven deaths were reported in eastern Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and adjoining areas, which house the densest tiger population in the state.
When it came to eight human deaths caused by wild boars, the casualties were well distributed across various parts of the state, including eastern, southern and western parts
The seven deaths which were caused following trampling by elephants were reported from the eastern MP districts neighbouring Chhattisgarh (the gateway of wild elephants into MP), including Anuppur, Sidhi and Shahdol.
Three of the four deaths caused reportedly due to sloth bear attacks were reported from eastern MP districts, neighbouring Chhattisgarh, including Sidhi and Shahdol.
Importantly, as per the state forest department data, as many as 406 human casualties in wild animal attacks, were reported in MP between 2020-21 and 2024-25, including 90 deaths in 2020-21, 80 casualties in 2021-22, 86 deaths in 2022-23, 79 deaths in 2023-24 and 71 casualties in 2024-25.
As many as 5804 humans were injured in attacks by wild animals between 2020-21 and 2024-25, while 72,627 cases of livestock loss due to attacks by wild animals were also reported during the same five years period.
The state paid more than Rs 88.38 crore as compensation for loss of human and livestock lives during the period ranging between 2020-21 and 2024-25, with maximum Rs 20.05 crore being paid in 2024-25, followed by Rs 19.71 crore-plus in 2022-23.
Importantly, as per available statistics, according to the MP State Wildlife Action Plan, between 2019 and 2022 the state recorded an average of 66 human deaths every year due to wildlife conflict and nearly 11,182 injury cases annually.
According to sources in the forest department, expanding “conflict zones,” where humans and wild animals encounter each other more frequently than ever before, are the primary cause for the rising human-animal conflicts. Not just is the population of tigers growing in MP (which houses maximum tigers in India), but the highest number of leopards, expanding sloth bear habitats and an increasing elephant presence in its eastern districts coupled with villages, farms, roads and railway lines increasingly overlapping with forests is also contributing to the issue.
Contrary to popular belief, most attacks do not occur deep inside forests, instead they take place on forest fringes where villagers collect firewood, graze cattle, harvest tendu leaves, collect mahua flowers or cultivate land adjoining forests. As wildlife disperses beyond protected areas in search of territory, prey and water, encounters become inevitable, sources added.
As per wildlife experts, the rise in conflict is paradoxically linked to conservation success. Growing tiger, leopard and bear populations require larger territories, while forest fragmentation leaves animals with fewer safe movement corridors.
