India, June 2 -- During a routine patrol in Madhya Pradesh's Kanha Tiger Reserve in May, the state's forest department team came across an adult tiger carcass. This was the third such case reported from the reserve in a span of two months. In a similar case reported the same month from Rajasthan's Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, a patrol team had discovered body of a young tiger.

All the four tiger death cases had a common thread-the animals were sub-adults or adults and the deaths were most likely due to territorial infighting among the species, said officials.

Infighting mainly includes cases of adult male tigers competing for territory, tigresses defending cubs, or conflicts due to dispersal of sub-adults into areas already occupied by ot...