NAGPUR: In a worrying development, accidents, poaching, and electrocution accounted for a big variety of 142 tiger and 537 leopard deaths reported in Maharashtra from Jan 2022 to Sept 2025. The massive cat fatality knowledge was supplied by the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Nagpur, in response to a Proper to Data (RTI) question.The report states that 35 tigers and 115 leopards have died in Maharashtra this 12 months until Sept. As compared, 26 tiger deaths have been reported in 2024, 52 in 2023, and 29 in 2022. Amongst this 12 months’s tiger deaths, 21 have been attributable to pure causes, 5 from accidents, one other 5 linked to electrocution and poaching, and 4 attributable to unspecified causes.Of the 142 tiger fatalities reported since 2022, pure deaths accounted for 84 circumstances, whereas 23 have been killed in accidents and 29 fell to poaching. In six circumstances, the reason for demise remained unclear. Specialists say poachers generally use electrocution and traps in forest fringes.“Poachers goal huge cats primarily for his or her physique elements and claws, which have excessive worth within the black market. They’re additionally killed to stop assaults on livestock,” stated a wildlife crime analyst.Leopard deaths, which stood at 115 to date in 2025, included 44 from pure causes, 42 from accidents, two from looking, three from electrocution, and 21 from different causes. Previously, the state had recorded 144 leopard deaths in 2024, 138 in 2023, and 140 in 2022.The information was issued in response to a RTI filed by Abhay Kolarkar.The information confirms that Maharashtra’s tiger inhabitants stands at 444, as per ‘Standing of Tigers in India 2022’ report revealed by the Nationwide Tiger Conservation Authority. Officers stated most pure deaths are linked to intra-species conflicts, outdated age, and illnesses, whereas unintended deaths contain car hits and electrocution close to forest fringes. Specialists additionally attributed the excessive accident price to highways and railway strains passing by way of wildlife corridors.