Dubey in a statement here on Tuesday said, “It is a known fact now that tigers are continuously being poached in the State but the forest department instead of making efforts to get poachers convicted conspicuously hides figures of tiger deaths and provides false information to Government of India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).”

Dubey added that a tiger was found dead in Ghunghti Forest range of Umaria district on Monday, taking the number of big cat deaths in the State to six this year. Carcass of the big cat was found near the National Highway 78 in a roadside trench by locals. The striped feline is suspected to have been hit by a vehicle on the national highway.

He said, “Here it is important to note that the National Wildlife Board chaired by Prime Minister has made several recommendations for the security and safe passage of tigers and other wild animals in the year 2013 for the highways passing through tiger reserves and sanctuaries but the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department did not pay any heed into them and yesterday that negligence resulted in a tigers' death. In a similar accident a tiger was crushed to death by a vehicle at Balaghat in 2014.”

He said that in 2015 we got information of 16 tiger deaths but the State Government made public and also informed the Central Government that only 11 tigers have been died. Most important thing is that two radio-collared tigers of Satpura Tiger Reserve were poached in 2015 but there was no mention of them anywhere though the death of these two tigers was revealed through the chalan submitted in the Suhagpur court.

The wildlife activist alleged that the good for nothing Forest Department of the State having failed to stop tigers poaching always provides false information to escape from its accountability. “We would soon knock court doors in the issue for proper action so that precious and rare tigers could be saved,” he added.