Moments after the official website of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) mentioned today, on December 30, that a total of 126 deaths of the big cats were recorded this year, several news reports highlighted that the deaths are the highest ever recorded.
However, reacting to the news reports, the Union Environment Ministry termed the media coverage of the situation as ‘lopsided’ and stated that the media coverage undermines the process involved in dealing with the deaths of tigers in the country.
“Certain media reports have highlighted the death of tigers during 2021 in a manner which is a lopsided view of tiger conservation in the country,” the ministry was quoted in a Twitter post by the state-owned radio broadcasting agency, the All India Radio. “…the manner in which figures available on National Tiger Conservation Authority’s website have been used in reports causes alarm and does not take into account the gamut of processes that go into dealing with tiger death in the country,” it added.
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The NTCA began to record the deaths of tigers in India in 2012. In a period of ten years, the second highest deaths of the tigers were recorded in 2016 as 121.
In a sharp contrast with the Union ministry’s statement, the NTCA mentions on its official website: “No tiger death is entered into the database, unless an authentic source from the State Government reports a tiger mortality. Even if a tiger death is reported from third party sources to the NTCA, a confirmation is obtained from the State before recording it”.
Madhya Pradesh has recorded maximum tiger deaths this year is followed by 26 in Maharashtra and 14 in Karnataka.
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“Ongoing process to protect tigers like patrolling is going on, and a lot of people have been arrested for poaching too. We are doing everything to protect the tigers, but we should also understand that nearly 30 percent of them are outside tiger reserves,” an official from NTCA was quoted in the press.
