India lost 177 tigers in 2023, Maharashtra reports 45 highest among states

New Delhi: India has lost around 177 tigers in the year 2023, has raised serious concerns on the “Project Tiger” mission, which was launched in 1973.

Maharashtra has registered the highest number of deaths at 45 followed by Madhya Pradesh at 40, Uttarakhand at 20, Tamil Nadu at 15 and Kerala at 14. In addition, 54 percent of these have taken place outside tiger reserves.

While the average of a tiger in the wild is around 10-12 years, 40 percent of tiger deaths in 2023 are composed of cubs and subadults, age classes which have naturally high mortality rates due to tiger land tenurial dynamics.

“Of the cases where the cause has been confirmed, the trend is evident with more than 77% being due to natural causes or causes not attributable to poaching as per the government” ministry said.

Meanwhile, wild tigers in India are growing at a healthy rate of 6% per year, which balances the loss of tigers due to various natural causes and maintains tiger population as per the carrying capacity of the habitat.

With declaration of new tiger reserve “Rani Durgavati” in Madhya Pradesh, the total number of tiger reserves in the county has gone up to 54 with more than 78,000 Square KM area and covers more than 2.30% of geographical area of India.

A total of 12 Tiger Reserves have achieved ‘Excellent ’ category, followed by 21 Tiger Reserves in ‘Very Good’ category, 13 Tiger Reserves in ‘Good ’ category and 5 Tiger Reserves in ‘Fair ’ category.

As per the 5th cycle of All India Tiger Estimation 2022, India has a minimum of 3167 tigers and now is home to more than 70% of wild tiger population of the world.

The upper limit of the tiger population is estimated to be 3925 and the average number is 3682 tigers, reflecting a commendable annual growth rate of 6.1% per annum.