750 tigers have died in the country in the past 8 years due to poaching and other causes (representation)
New Delhi:
No fewer than 750 tigers have died in the country in the past eight years due to poaching and other causes, Madhya Pradesh reporting the highest number of victims at 173, according to official data.
Of these total tiger mortalities, 369 were due to natural causes, 168 due to poaching, 70 deaths are under investigation and 42 due to unnatural reasons, including accidents or conflicts, he said. indicated.
There have also been the seizure of 101 felines in the eight-year period between 2012 and 2019 by various authorities across the country, said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in response to an RTI request filed by a correspondent from the press agency Press Trust of India. .
The NTCA was asked to share details of tiger deaths between 2010 and May 2020. However, it only provided data for the eight years starting in 2012.
Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar said in December that the country’s tiger population has increased by 750 over the past four years, from 2,226 to 2,976.
“The number of tigers is now 2,976. We must be proud of our ecological system as a whole. Tigers have increased by 750 over the past four years,” Rajadekar told Rajya Sabha in response to a question additional.
Of the 173 highest deaths reported by Madhya Pradesh during this period, 38 were from poaching, 94 natural deaths, 19 under review, six from unnatural causes and 16 seizures, according to the data.
Madhya Pradesh has the largest number of 526 tigers in the country.
Maharashtra recorded the second highest death, as it lost 125 cats during this period, followed by 111 in Karnataka, 88 in Uttarakhand, 54 each in Tamil Nadu and Assam, 35 each in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, 17 in Rajasthan, 11 in Bihar and West Bengal and 10 in Chhattisgarh, according to the press release.
Seven such deaths have been reported in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, five in Telangana, two in Delhi and Nagaland, and one in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat, the NTCA said.
Giving details of tiger deaths due to poaching, the report says that Maharashtra and Karnataka lost 28 tigers each due to poaching, 17 in Assam, 14 in Uttarakhand, 12 in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in Tamil Nadu, six in Kerala and three in Rajasthan, among others. .
The NTCA did not provide details of the action taken in these tiger death cases in response to RTI’s request.
Asked about the details of the extinct tigers in the country, he stated that the information was not available with him and suggested that the applicant contact the Chief of Wildlife (CWLW) of 18 states with tiger reserves to obtain the information. desired information.
Wildlife activists expressed concern over 750 tiger deaths between 2012 and 2019 and supported tougher wildlife provisions to punish the culprits.
“It is extremely worrying that so many tigers have died due to poaching and other reasons. There is a need for tougher penal provisions for those convicted of crimes against wildlife,” said Ajay. Dubey, wildlife activist based in Bhopal.
He said conservation efforts need to be accelerated to save big cats from poachers.
“Great attention is paid to tiger tourism by the governments of the states concerned which affect their natural habitat. There is a need to accelerate efforts to conserve the tiger. The government must impose more severe penalties for crimes related to wildlife “said Mr. Dubey.
Echoing his point of view, Simrat Sandhu, a member of the Rajasthan Wildlife Board, said that the conviction rate for wildlife crimes is quite low.
“There must be a life sentence at least for serious wildlife crimes like tiger poaching. In addition, state governments must take the case of missing tigers seriously and track them down so that poaching of these big cats can be prevented, “said Sandhu.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
