JOIN USIndia lost 154 tigers between 2017-21 to poaching: Report
India lost 154 tigers to the illegal wildlife trade and poaching in five years between 2017-2021, a worrying blow to the significant efforts at the local, national and international levels to protect the future of the animal, according to a report by TRAFFIC India office.
India has 2,967 tigers in the wild, the world's highest population of wild tigers.
In India, 547 tiger mortalities were recorded from 2017-2021, and 154 of these lost their lives to poaching and illegal wildlife trade, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change that maintains the details of tiger mortality events that occur in India on their database - TigerNET.
These 154 poaching incidents were attributed to seizure (55), poaching (33), poisoning (25), electrocution (22), snaring (9), and shooting (7), while there was insufficient data (3) for others.
The analysis of the above data for 2017 to 2021 found that the 55 incidents of tiger-related seizure recorded in India show that a third of tiger deaths were attributed to poaching.
"Tigers are a fundamental part of India's forest. They keep the lush green abode of wildlife living and thriving through the vital ecosystem services such as maintaining prey population and keeping the food chain balance they provide. Yet, these majestic species are threatened by depleting habitats and lingering demand for their body parts,” according to the report - “India’s Tigers Threatened by Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade” - authored by Astha Gautam, Officer, TRAFFIC, India Office, which was published in TRAFFIC POST.
One of the most commonly reported causes of mortality in the poaching of tigers is electrocution, which along with snaring, is a disturbing trend that poses a significant risk to tigers and numerous other species, the report states.
“Snares, in particular, are cheap and made of easily accessible materials, thus are employed at a concerning scale within the targeted areas to poach wild animals for consumption and trade. Due to the indiscriminate and destructive nature of these poaching methods, an array of wild animals end up as accidental victims. Even those animals, including tigers that manage to survive the snares end up debilitated and suffer due to the wounds, often becoming incapable of hunting their prey, thus ending in conflict with humans,” it said.
The report said that there was need to strengthen efforts by enforcement and policymakers to curb the illegal wildlife trade and prevent poaching of tigers within their habitat.
According to a global study by TRAFFIC titled 'Skin and Bones Unresolved', the highest number of seizure incidents across 32 countries and territories globally were reported from India for the period 2000-2018. This included 463 seizures amounting to an estimated 625 equivalent tigers, with skin and bones being the top two seized
commodities. According to the report, skins were the single-most frequently seized tiger part in the world, with 38 per cent of these skins being seized in India. Also, 42 per cent of tiger claws and teeth, and 28 per cent of bones seized globally were reported from India for the study period.