IWN Daily Digest — Monday, 13 April 2026
Between October 2025 and April 10th, 2026, Karnataka lost 15 tigers to electrocution, poisoning, snaring, and revenge killings. Thirteen leopards died in the same period, including a mother and four unborn cubs killed in a road accident on the NICE Road in March. Eight elephants died, mostly to illegal electric fencing on farm boundaries. And 19 people — most of them women — were killed in human-wildlife conflict across Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Shivamogga, and neighbouring districts. The data, reported by Green Minute, covers only confirmed, documented incidents — the actual toll is likely higher.
The state’s Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre has responded to the crisis with a proposal that has stirred immediate controversy: sterilising select wild animals to control population numbers and reduce conflict. Speaking to the media after a coffee planter was trampled to death by an elephant in South Kodagu, Khandre said the idea was a “thought process” requiring public debate and expert consultation. Deccan Herald reports that the wildlife wing has also discussed sterilising conflict-prone leopards. Wildlife filmmakers Krupakar and Senani were swift to push back, calling sterilisation of wild animals “unscientific” and warning it could disrupt natural behaviour and ecological balance. Scientists at WII have previously noted that contraception at scale requires sustained, repeated implementation — and that the evidence from dogs and macaques suggests implementation failure, not the concept itself, is the underlying problem.
The two stories together — an escalating body count and a government response that conservationists regard as misguided — paint a picture of a state struggling to find a durable answer to one of India’s most complex wildlife management challenges. Karnataka has more tigers and leopards than almost any other state in India, and as their numbers grow, so does the pressure on the fringes of the forest where the conflict is hottest.
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Sources: Green Minute — Karnataka conflict tally · Deccan Herald — sterilisation proposal · Star of Mysore — wildlife expert response · Free Press Journal