Lok Sabha Question No. 5211 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-04
Subject: Tiger Deaths
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Adala Prabhakara Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 5211

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 04.04.2022

## Tiger Deaths

## 5211.  SHRI ADALA PRABHAKARA REDDY:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) the cause-wise details of tiger deaths in the country in the past three years;
- (b) whether there has been an increase in tiger deaths involving poaching and man-animal conflict if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the steps taken by the Government to prevent poaching and counter the increase in mananimal conflicts?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) The details of tiger mortality for the last three as reported by States is at Annexure - I. The average life  span  of  the  tigers  in  the  wild  is  generally  10-12  years  and  in  the  wild several factors like old age, diseases, internecine fights, high infant mortality, electrocution, snaring, drowning, road/rail hits etc account for majority of tiger deaths.
- (b) No sir. There has not been any drastic increase in tiger deaths involving poaching and mananimal conflict in comparison to previous years.
- (c) For  preventing  poaching  of  wildlife  including  tigers  the  National  Tiger  Conservation Authority  has  issued  generic  guidelines  for  formulating  a  Security  Plan  for  each  tiger reserve  which  is  operationalised  in  the  overarching  Tiger  Conservation  Plan,  legally mandated under section 38 V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.  The Government of India, through the National Tiger Conservation Authority, has advocated a three pronged strategy to manage human-tiger negative interactions as follows:-
- (i) Material and logistical support: Funding support through the ongoing Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  of  Project  Tiger,  is  provided  to  tiger  reserves  for  acquiring capacity in terms of infrastructure and material, to deal with tigers dispersing out of source  areas.   These  are  solicited  by  tiger  reserves  through  an  Annual  Plan  of Operation (APO)  every year which stems out from an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated under Section 38 V of the Wildlife (Protection)  Act,  1972. Inter  alia, activities  such  as  payment  of  ex-gratia  and compensation,  periodic  awareness  campaigns  to  sensitize,  guide  and  advise  the general  populace  on  man-animal  conflict,  dissemination  of  information  through various forms of media, procurement of immobilization equipment, drugs, training and  capacity  building  of  forest  staff  to  deal  with  conflict  events  are  generally solicited.
- (ii) Restricting  habitat  interventions :  Based  on  the  carrying  capacity  of  tigers  in  a tiger  reserve,  habitat  interventions  are  restricted  through  an  overarching  TCP.   In case  tiger  numbers  are  at  carrying  capacity  levels,  it  is  advised  that  habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spill over of wildlife including tigers thereby minimizing man-animal conflict.  Further, in buffer areas around  tiger  reserves,  habitat  interventions  are  restricted  such  that  they  are  suboptimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only.
- (iii) Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs): The National Tiger Conservation Authority  has  issued  following  three  SOPs  to  deal  with  human-animal  conflict, which are available in public domain:

i. To  deal  with  emergency  arising  due  to  straying  of  tigers  in  human dominated landscapes

- ii. To deal with tiger depredation on livestock

iii. For active management towards rehabilitation of tigers from source areas at the landscape level.

The  three  SOPs inter  alia include the  issue  of  managing  dispersing  tigers, managing livestock kills so as to reduce conflict as well as relocating tigers from source areas to areas where density of tiger is low, so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.

Also as per Tiger Conservation Plans need based and site-specific management interventions are undertaken by the tiger reserves for improving the quality of wildlife habitat and funding support for these activities is provided under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger.

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## Annexure-I

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  5211  ON  TIGER  DEATHS  DUE  FOR  REPLY  ON 04.04.2022

## Details of tiger mortality during last three years, as reported by States

| State             |   Year |   Year |   Year |
|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|
|                   |   2019 |   2020 |   2021 |
| Andhra Pradesh    |      1 |      1 |      1 |
| Arunachal Pradesh |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| Assam             |      5 |      6 |      6 |
| Bihar             |      1 |      1 |      4 |
| Chhattisgarh      |      1 |      1 |      4 |
| Delhi             |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| Goa               |      0 |      4 |      0 |
| Gujarat           |      1 |      0 |      0 |
| Jharkhand         |      0 |      1 |      0 |
| Karnataka         |     12 |     12 |     15 |
| Kerala            |      1 |     10 |      6 |
| Madhya Pradesh    |     31 |     29 |     42 |
| Maharashtra       |     18 |     16 |     27 |
| Nagaland          |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| Odisha            |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| Rajasthan         |      3 |      3 |      1 |
| Tamil Nadu        |      7 |      8 |      4 |
| Telangana         |      2 |      0 |      4 |
| Uttar Pradesh     |      4 |      9 |      9 |
| Uttarakhand       |      7 |      4 |      3 |
| West Bengal       |      2 |      1 |      1 |
| Total             |     96 |    106 |    127 |

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