Madhav National Park: Tigress MT 6 Enclosed After Suspected Fatal Attack on Villager

Bhopal: Female tiger, MT 6, has been put in an enclosure in the Madhav National Park (MNP) in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district on the suspicion of killing a middle-aged man in a village adjoining the MNP five days ago.

The tigress was reportedly spotted around 200 meters from the body of 50-year-old tribal Sarwan, a native of Airawan village in the district, at Narwar, situated on the threshold of the national park, on April 24 by the local villagers.

The slain tribal had gone to take bath in a water body on the outskirts of his village on the fateful day and he was reportedly dragged by the wild cat and later killed.

His partly eaten body was found by the local villagers, causing panic among them.

The incident triggered a stir by the locals who staged a blockade at Shivpuri- Narwar road on April 25 demanding the authorities concerned to capture the wild animal for the safety of the people in the surrounding tribal villages.

The forest department had later pacified the irate villagers assuring that the tigress will be captured, a senior forest officer said on Wednesday.

The big cat was later tranquilized and put in an enclosure.

“We are awaiting the forensic report which will decide if the villager was killed by MT 6 or any other tiger”, the forest officer said, unwilling to be quoted.

If it will be confirmed that the tigress had killed the villager, then it will be examined if the wild cat can be rehabilitated to effect change in its behaviour, the forest officer said.

But it is not an easy process.

According to the forest officer, while many man-eater tigers are captured and placed in zoos, some can be successfully rehabilitated, treated, and released back into the wild to feed on their natural prey.

Captured tigers are kept in specialized, secure facilities to assess their behaviour and health.

Many tigers become man-eaters due to injuries or old age that prevent them from hunting fast, wild prey.

Treating these injuries can reduce their need to hunt easy human prey, he said.

Madhav National Park was declared a tiger reserve on March nine, 2025.

The national park had lost all its tigers and a reintroduction programme was launched a couple of years back with the release of three tigers, translocated from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Madhya Pradesh.

Later, two more tigers were released in the national park.

Two cubs have been born in the national park.