Tigers in India have seen a worse year with death numbers climbing a new high
Year 2021 wasn’t a good year. That’s when you take the overall pandemic situation, climate change and other factors into serious consideration. The world was at the mercy of a virus that threatened the advent of a new form of catastrophe. Human failure in containing the contagion was exposed threadbare, though whole-hearted efforts from healthcare workers had brought in some relief.
The human story apart, animals across the world also had a tough year. Though not attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths recorded in the animal kingdom is more than enough to take into account what the future holds for the animals and birds that inhabit the planet.
The year was much worse for the tiger population of India. 2021 recorded as many as 126 tiger deaths in the country, and that number is by no standards a small one.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) of India, which is the tiger conservation body of the country, has put out this count after a tiger died this Wednesday in Madhya Pradesh.
Tigers belong to the endangered category
The total number of deaths of tigers standing at 126 for the whole year adds much significance to the way the endangered animals are slowly vanishing from the forests of India.
The 126 count is more than the previous highest number of deaths recorded in 2016. That year as many as 121 big cats had met with their deaths, causing alarm to tiger conservationists and the government.
Among the tigers roaming across the world’s forests, a maximum number lives in India. It has been recorded that around 75 percent of the world’s tigers have made India their home.
The update of the maximum number of deaths of the big cats come as India had been celebrating the unprecedented population rise of tigers in India. It may be recalled that two years ago, the Union government had announced that the tiger population in India had risen to 2,967 in 2018 from a record low of 1,411 in 2006. This indeed called for celebrations.
Natural causes, poaching, human-wildlife conflict
But the latest death figures don’t do justice to the way the tigers are being protected. If one goes on a fact finding mission as to know what caused tiger deaths at such a rate, a slew of reasons come to the fore. While most deaths happened due to natural causes, which is yet to be explained, others had died as a result of human-wildlife conflict and poaching.
That, in fact, provides ample reason for the government and the National Tiger Conservation Authority to the look into how to deal with poachers and also measures to reduce human-wildlife conflict. The conflict between human inhabitations and encroaching wildlife has been discussed much of late, and more steps have become imperative so that such encounters are minimized.
As earlier made public, India has already reserved 50 habitats across the country for tigers in a bid to help in increase of their population.