Despite stringent measures to conserve tigers in protected reserves in the country, a report by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has noted that tiger poaching incidents have continued in the country.
According to data available on the NTCA website, 78 tigers were found dead around the country in 2014, of which 17 were confirmed incidents of poaching. While four of the 78 cases were due to natural causes, 57 cases tiger deaths are being probed by authorities concerned to ascertain the exact cause of death.
While 17 tigers were poached, authorities have seized 12 tiger pelts during the year. The number of tiger deaths in Karnataka, during the year 2014 was seven.
The report has blamed poachers and tribal hunters for a majority of the poaching incidents, while attributing some deaths to man-animal conflict.
The tribal communities identified to be involved in poaching include, Beheliya, Badaka, Mongia, Bavaria, Boya, Nirshikari, Pichari, Chakma, Mizo, Nyishi and others. The report notes that schemes to rehabilitate the communities and encourage them to stop hunting has not borne fruit.
Number of poaching communities are more in Northern India, as compared to Southern India, with close to 5,000 families still involved in hunting. One added concern is that these communities reside on the edges of reserves.
344 deaths
The NTCA report also highlights that 344 tigers were found dead in the past five years, of which 122 were due to poaching. Probe to ascertain the cause of 117 tiger deaths is still on.
During the same period, 105 tigers died of natural causes.