Should the all-time high in tiger death count in the country be a matter of worry? While the government contends that the deaths have to be unnatural for them to be a big deal, other scientists blame it on the shrinking habitat and human intrusion.
Government officials are clueless on the nature of their mortality—natural or otherwise. In fact, hundreds of tiger death cases are under investigation or pending since 2019. Till September 20 this year, there were 142 tiger deaths in the country in 53 designated tiger reserves, the highest in the past 11 years. In 2021, the number of tiger deaths was 127.
Data of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) shows that 51% of mortalities till this September was outside the tiger reserve, whereas in 2022 and 2021, the numbers were 43% and 49%, respectively. A month-wise analysis shows that most deaths took place in December-January and March-May. Most of the deaths were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Assam.
Scientists say the deaths are due to shrinking of tiger habitat and intrusion of human activities. “Around 40% of total tigers live outside the reserve, that is outside core zone as their numbers are rising but not that of suitable habitats,” says Dr Y V Jhala, a wildlife biologist who used to work with the Wildlife Institute of India. “These tigers either stray toward human settlement or stayed in buffer zones or tiger corridors, so there are chances of frequent human-wildlife conflict,” he adds.
Natural or poaching?
In July this year, an NTCA report on Status of Tigers showed that at that point in time, India had at least 3,167 tigers, which worked up to 75% of world’s tiger population. India registered an average 24% increase in tiger population since the last census in 2018. The country has 54 tiger reserves spread across over 76,000 km2, effectively covering 2.3% of India’s total land area.
Government officials say the deaths are due to the rising number of tigers. “As the population is increasing, so is the number of deaths,” says S P Yadav, Member Secretary, NTCA. “The numbers may go further up as the natural life cycle ends. We need to be concerned only if the deaths are unnatural like poaching or others,” he adds.
However, NTCA as well as state governments, who are the primary custodians of tiger conservation, are clueless about poaching. In 2018, 33% of tigers died due to poaching, followed by 33% in 2017 and 20% in 2016. NTCA guidelines state that all tiger deaths should be classified as unnatural or natural within 90 days of its occurrence. But it has not been followed since 2019. As many as 22 cases of tiger deaths are pending from 2019 and 73 since 2020.
A study published in 2022 claims that though India is the primary habitat of tigers, it also tops in the number of tiger-related seizures. The study also mapped the illegal trading corridors in India.
“From our analysis, we mapped four trade routes for the export of the seized parts: the Nepal-Bhutan border, Assam border, the Brahmaputra, and the Mumbai port. The intensity of seizures is very high in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Assam,” says author of study Dr Raveendranathanpillai Sanil of the Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology, Government Arts College, Tamil Nadu.
China is the largest consumer of illegal wildlife trade of tigers’ body parts as well as by-products. Incorrect perception of the Chinese society apparently created the demand for tiger body parts. Trafficked tigers’ body parts are primarily used as decorative materials such as jewellery, holy materials, fashion, etc. Flesh, blood, bones, fat and genitalia are used as ingredients in traditional medicines.
Poor forensic infrastructure
The Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology-LaCONES and the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India’s lab are the only two dedicated forensic labs for conservation of endangered wildlife species of the country. Thus, they are overloaded with cases related to wildlife deaths. It impacts prosecution of probable culprits engaged in poaching.
“Wildlife cases from east and northeast India and North India usually go to Dehradun and Central and southern region cases go to Hyderabad,” said Arvind Kumar Chaurasia, Deputy Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Delhi. “Reports of these two labs stand as credible evidence in the court,” said Chaurasia.
Recently, WCCB along with Assam and Maharashtra police busted a syndicate of poachers and illegal traders. But the prosecution rate of the accused is too low. There are an estimated 70,000 cases pending in different courts related to wildlife crimes.
“My new research shows hardly 15% to 32% cases related to wildlife see prosecution in different states,” says Sanil. He further says poor forensic infrastructure causing delays in reports and poorly trained field and lab staff are the reason behind non-prosecution of wildlife criminals.