1,059 tiger deaths in 10 years, most in Madhya Pradesh: NTCA
According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), 75 tigers have died across the country this year, while 127 died last year, the highest in the last decade
There were 1,059 tiger deaths in India since 2012 with Madhya Pradesh recording the highest number of deaths according to data published by National Tiger Conservation Authority on their website.
According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), 75 tigers have died across the country this year, while 127 died last year, the highest in the last decade.
Madhya Pradesh, which has six tiger reserves, and the highest population of tigers in the country, recorded 202 deaths during between 2012 and 2020, followed by Maharashtra (141), Karnataka (123), Uttarakhand (93), Assam (60), Tamil Nadu (62), Uttar Pradesh (44) and Kerala (45)
Madhya Pradesh has lost 68 tigers in the last one-and-a-half years, while Maharashtra has seen 42 tiger deaths in this period.
According to the tiger census of 2019, India has 2967 tigers, of which 526 are in Madhya Pradesh.
Anish Andheria, President, Wildlife Conservation Trust said, "If Madhya Pradesh had unnaturally high rate of tiger mortality, the tiger population of the state wouldn't have gone up steadily in the last 10 years. MP has the highest number of tigers in India (526) as per the 2018 All India Tiger Estimation exercise. This means MP will have a proportionately high number of tiger deaths too. Compared to many other states, there is definitely much better monitoring and reporting from MP, which means, the state doesn't try to hide tiger deaths.
Scientific studies have shown that, under natural conditions, infant mortality is very high in tigers and other large carnivores. Up to 70% of cubs born will die due to natural reasons in the first 15 months. This explains the relatively small population size in India despite a healthy birth rate."
"A back of the hand calculation suggests that in a population of 3,000 tigers in India, over 1,500 cubs will be born every year. This means, India will produce approximately 10,000 to 15,000 cubs every ten years. The report states that in the 10 year period between 2012-2022, a thousand tigers have died. Assuming that all tiger deaths were detected and all detected deaths were reported, India should have had five time more tigers (15,000) than it currently supports (~3000)! Another fact is that it is extremely difficult to detect dead tigers in the jungle. This is because, a) ailing tigers will often hide in remote forested areas where detection is nearly impossible, b) after death, the body disintegrates rapidly, especially in monsoon and summers and c) there are many scavengers in the jungle. They will readily eat from a dead tiger carcass," Andheria explained.
Having said this, one must always take mortality data seriously and analyse the exact cause behind tiger deaths. Whenever it is proved that a tiger has been poisoned or poached, stringent action must be taken to intercept and book the people involved in the heinous crime and the protection mechanism of the area must to be strengthened. This is extremely important as often times poachers don't go for just one tiger. If a poaching incident is ignored or if information is suppressed by the forest department, invariably, many more tigers will be taken from the same region.
It is fair to assume that since MP's tiger numbers are high, the threat of poaching will also be high. By default, poachers will invest effort in areas with high tiger densities. Hence, the forest department has to be on high alert at all times," Andheria added.
Madhya Pradesh principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), JS Chauhan added: “The population of tigers has increased in the past few years in MP. Many tigers die naturally either due to ageing or in territorial fight. A few unnatural deaths happened due to electrocution. The forensic and expert team closes cases on the basis of evidence only. As of now, MP is doing good work for conservation of tigers.”
According to the data from NTCA, 106 tiger deaths occurred in 2020; 96 in 2019; 101 in 2018; 117 in 2017; 121 in 2016; 82 in 2015; 78 in 2014; 68 in 2013 and 88 in 2012.
According to NTCA, 193 tigers died due to poaching in the 2012-2020 period. Data of deaths due to poaching since January 2021 is not yet available. NTCA identified “seizure” as the reason for the death of 108 tigers, while 44 big cats died due to unnatural causes in this period.
According to the NTCA, poaching is considered as the reason for all tiger deaths in the beginning.
“We have nearly 3000 tigers in India out of them 200 tigers should die every year. There is a population growth of about 6% in tigers and their life is around 12 years. So, isn’t it natural to see 1000 deaths in 10 years? Tigers are not immortal. I think people have no understanding of population dynamics of tigers,” said a senior official of NTCA responding to the numbers.
But there are still some unexplained inconsistencies in the numbers.
India’s 2019 tiger population reflects a 33% increase over 2014 when there were 2,226 tigers in the country. Karnataka has 524 tigers and Uttarakhand, 442.
But, tiger numbers had more than halved in Chhattisgarh from 46 in 2014 to 19 in 2018. Mizoram and northern West Bengal which had tiger signs in 2014 have not recorded any signs in 2019. Tigers were not recorded in Buxa, West Bengal, Dampa in Mizoram and Palamau in Jharkhand. All three reserves recorded tiger signs in the 2014 census. And Odisha did not see any improvement in tiger numbers.