New Delhi: The Ministry of Environment on Thursday said tiger population in the country has been taken from the brink to an assured path of recovery, which is evident from quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation reports showing healthy annual growth of 6 per cent.
The ministry’s statement comes in the wake of recent tiger deaths reported in Madhya Pradesh.
It said due to the efforts of the government through the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), “tiger population has been taken from the brink to an assured path of recovery, which is evident in findings of the quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation conducted in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018″.
“These results have shown a healthy annual growth rate of tigers at 6 per cent, which offsets natural losses and keeps tigers at the habitats carrying capacity level, in the Indian context,” it said.
The ministry further stated that for the period from 2012 to 2021, one can observe that the average tiger deaths per year in the country hover around 98, which is balanced by the annual recruitment as highlighted by the robust growth rate.
Referring to a news report that out of 126 instances of tiger deaths, 60 tigers had died due to unnatural causes like poaching, accidents, man-animal conflict outside protected areas, the environment ministry said it can ascertain the cause of death only after a detailed analysis.
“In this light, it is pertinent to mention that the NTCA, through a dedicated standard operating procedure, has a stringent protocol to ascribe cause to a tiger death, which is treated as unnatural, unless otherwise proved by the state concerned through submission of necropsy reports, histopathological and forensic assessments besides photographs and circumstantial evidences.
“It is only after a detailed analysis of these documents that the cause of death of 60 tigers outside tiger reserves can be ascertained,” it noted.
