The Madhya Pradesh government's overdrive to get white tigers from Odisha has caused concern among the wildlife lobby.

The undue hurry - to beat the deadline before the code of conduct for state election comes into force - is driven by the political leadership's urge to win votes in Rewa but it may prove fatal for the big cat, they claim. First letter was sent to the chief wildlife warden (CWW) Odisha J D Sharma by his MP counterpart Narendra Kumar on September 2 seeking translocation of one white tiger from Nandan Kanan zoo to Mukundpur zoo and rescue centre in Satna district in exchange of normal coloured male tiger.

Madhya Pradesh is a crucial link in the international poaching corridor straddling Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal and Tibet.

While the leopard is one of the most widely recognized cats after tigers, its days may be numbered in Madhya Pradesh.

JAIPUR/GWALIOR: The search for a home led a young male tiger from Ranthambore to travel through villages and agricultural fields, cross the Chambal river and 'settle' 220km away in a patch of forest in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh.

This is the farthest any big cat from the national park is recorded to have travelled. The journey has been documented by Ranthambhore's deputy conservator of forest YK Sahu, field biologist Dharmendra Khandal (of tiger watch), and Ayan Sadhu, a junior research fellow at Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

MANDLA: Tiger corridors and its habitat around famous Kanha National Park is threatened by unabated mining of dolomite in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh- located 466 km south-east of Bhopal. Mining has reached to areas about 0 meters from the forest limits in some cases, said sources.

Mandla has one of the best quality dolomite reserves in the country and several mining companies are active in the area. While the forest department wants immediate closure of nearly 60 mines operating in the region, administrative officials have turned a blind eye to the proposal terming that mining operations will continue till expiry of lease. Mining permissions were issued before the new forest conservation Act came into force, say officers in the mining department.

BHOPAL: Satpura-Maikal landscape of central India-- largest natural habitat of tigers in the world - will no longer remain one big entity, if coal mining is allowed in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district.

Ironically, state forest minister Sartaj Singh finds him in a fix with experts on both sides- those in favour of coal mining or protecting corridor for the sake of striped big cat population-divided on the issue.