Bhopal: In worrying statistics emerging from the state, more than 45 tigers have died in Madhya Pradesh in the first eight months of 2026. Madhya Pradesh has the largest number of tigers in the country. While the number of tigers have gone up, the forests available to them have not expanded at the same pace. The deaths were spread across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Madhya Pradesh had one of the most worrying backlogs, including cases from major tiger landscapes such as Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Panna, areas considered among India’s most important breeding grounds for the big cat.