Seventy-one tigers died due to unnatural causes, including poaching and seizures, since 2021, the Environment Ministry said on Monday.Responding to a query in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, said Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of deaths at 20, followed by Maharashtra (15) and Karnataka (4) since 2021.Twenty tiger deaths were reported in 2021, while 25 big cats died in 2022. In 2023, 25 tigers were reported dead while one casualty due to unnatural causes has been confirmed so far this year, according to the data shared by the minister in his reply.Tiger population is increasing at a rate of 6 per cent per annum in the country when consistently sampled areas are compared, Singh said.The tiger population has increased as per the All India Tiger Estimation done in 2022, with an estimated number of 3,682 (range 3,167-3,925) as compared to the 2018 estimation of 2,967 (range 2,603-3,346) and the 2014 estimation of 2,226 (range 1,945-2,491), Singh said in his written response.
