Tiger Poached, Carcass Buried. A 'Gulf War' Claim Follows 23 Days Later

Despite the delay, the Forest Department has maintained that monitoring was carried out as per standard procedure.

06 Apr 2026, 14:07 · www.ndtv.com

Can a war thousands of kilometres away disrupt India's tiger tracking system? A sensational claim buried in a confidential March 28 memo, accessed by NDTV, has triggered a major controversy in Madhya Pradesh. The memo, sent by Satpura Tiger Reserve Field Director Rakhi Nanda to the state's forest authorities, attributes the disappearance of a radio-collared tiger's signal to "possible satellite glitches tied to the Gulf War."

This explanation has surfaced even as the ground reality tells a far more disturbing story. A four-year-old tiger, fitted with a Rs 6 lakh satellite collar, went off the grid on March 3. Under established protocol, any signal loss beyond eight hours should trigger an immediate field response. That did not happen.

For 23 days, there was no on-ground verification. When teams finally reached Chhatiaam village in Chhindwara's Sangakheda range on March 27-28, they uncovered that poachers had killed a bull and used it as bait. To prevent identification, they severed both ears of the animal. The tiger, after consuming the poisoned meat, was killed. The attackers then burned the collar ID, destroyed evidence, and buried the carcass 200 metres away. The body, more than 24 days old, was recovered after dog squads tracked the trail to the farmhouse of landowner Udesingh, who later confessed to the crime. Five accused have since been arrested.

Despite the delay, the Forest Department has maintained that monitoring was carried out as per standard procedure. Field Director Rakhi Nanda said officers were coordinating with WWF officials, and when signals were not received, they continued communication among themselves since the collar had been provided by WWF.

Nanda acknowledged that signal drops are not uncommon, explaining that "signals do drop intermittently quite often, sometimes because the animal is resting deep within the forest cover," and added that teams often rely on VHF receivers for ground tracking. However, when questioned about the absence of any monitoring response for 23 days, she maintained that the tiger had already established its territory and was being tracked under routine protocols. When asked about possible tampering or hacking of the signal, she declined to comment.

Even as the department cites a possible "Middle East War" angle for signal disruption, experts have strongly contested the claim. Former IFS officer and noted conservationist known as the "Tiger Man," R Srinivasa Murthy, termed the explanation "absolutely incorrect and virtually impossible," pointing out that satellite collars typically function independently for only about six months due to battery limitations. Telemetry experts have also suggested that terrain interference, battery failure, or equipment wear are far more plausible reasons for signal loss than distant geopolitical conflicts. One officer admitted that collars are expected to respond instantly, and such delays are highly unusual.

The controversy has deepened further due to shifting explanations regarding the cause of death. Initial indications pointed to poisoning through bait, followed by claims of urea ingestion, and electrocution. Wildlife experts have questioned these inconsistencies, noting that urea is not immediately fatal and typically induces vomiting, making it an unlikely sole cause of death without supporting pathological evidence. If electrocution was indeed responsible, serious concerns arise over how live electric wires were present inside a protected tiger habitat without detection.

Activist Ajay Dubey has called the incident a "complete breakdown of protocol" and said that a radio-collared tiger should have been under real-time monitoring and that the failure to initiate a search after the eight-hour signal lapse reflects gross negligence. He has also pointed to the presence of illegal activities within the reserve, including opium cultivation and potential poaching networks, as indicators of systemic failure. He said, "The Forest Department is constantly changing its statements. Now it claims the tiger was killed by an electric wire. Our contention is that this clearly reflects negligence. How could live electric wires and illegal opium cultivation exist in such a sensitive area? The tiger's jaw and paws are missing. Accountability must be fixed, and responsibility must be assigned to senior forest officials."

During the investigation, officials stumbled upon a large-scale illegal operation in the same forest stretch near Tamia, where 6,148 opium plants weighing 194.5 kilograms were seized. Police were informed on March 28 but reached the site only the following day, further highlighting enforcement gaps. The case has been registered under the NDPS Act, adding another layer to what is already a deeply troubling episode.

This is, however, not an isolated incident. In Madhav National Park in Shivpuri, another collar reportedly dropped four days late, raising broader concerns about the reliability of monitoring systems. The developments come at a time when tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh have been steadily rising, with 43 deaths in 2022, 45 in 2023, 46 in 2024, and a record 54 in 2025. Around 16 tiger deaths have already been reported in 2026, even as the All-India Tiger Estimation enters its final phase.

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