A success story gone wrong?

With 414 tiger deaths in four years (2015-18), India records highest toll between two censuses. Almost half of tiger deaths in the last three years were reported outside tiger reserves.





According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) records till December 24, 2018, there were 96 cases of tiger deaths in the country. Of these, 41 were have been reported outside tiger reserves. A recent Right To Information (RTI) filed by Noida-based advocate, Ranjan Tomar yielded a response by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau which stated that a total of 384 tigers have been killed between the period of 2008 to 2018. The RTI also asked about the count of people arrested and prosecuted for killing tigers in the past 10 years.



Did you know? By one estimate, between 1875 and 1925 alone, some 80,000 tigers were killed in India.







Map shows the details of tiger deaths from 2015 to 2018



Data Source: Tiger Reserve Statistics, tigernet.nic.in, Last updated 24 December 2018



Of the 96 deaths, 14 occurred in Maharashtra, which accounted for over 34 per cent of all deaths outside tiger reserves in the country. A total of 19 tiger deaths were recorded in Maharashtra in 2018, so deaths outside tiger reserves comprise more than 70 per cent of all tiger deaths in the state. According to the last tiger estimation exercise in the country in 2014, Maharashtra is home to 190 tigers, but more than a third of its tigers, or about 74 of them, live outside tiger reserves in the state.

No policy for protection of tigers outside reserves



Ninety-eight tiger bodies were recovered in 2017 while 17 were presumed dead on the basis of body parts seized. The highest number was reported from Madhya Pradesh (28), followed by Maharashtra (21) and Assam (16), accounting for about 55 per cent of the total number of deaths. The data also revealed that 54 tiger deaths, or about 47 per cent of the total deaths, were recorded outside tiger reserves. This is not surprising as about 40 per cent of India's tiger population is believed to be living in forests outside tiger reserves. In 2016, the tiger mortality figure was 122, which was over 50 per cent more than that in the previous year when the total tiger deaths were 80.



Graph shows the details of tiger deaths inside or outside the tiger reserves, 2018

Hover over the graph to see details



Data Source: Tiger Reserve Statistics, tigernet.nic.in, Last updated 24 December 2018



Graph shows the details of tiger deaths inside or outside the tiger reserves, 2017

Hover over the graph to see details



Data Source: Tiger Reserve Statistics, tigernet.nic.in, Last updated 24 December 2018

Humanity’s conflict with tigers has gradually increased since the 1970s, when India launched a nation-wide tiger conservation project in 1973 that carved out sanctuaries and national parks and made it a crime to kill a big cat. Though methods for counting tigers have changed, census evidence suggests the number of tigers has since gone up, from about 1,800 then to 2,226 in 2014. India now has 50 tiger reserves that cover 2.12 per cent of the country's total geographical area. According to the tiger census of 2014, India was home to 2,226 tigers, or about 60 per cent of the world's wild tiger population of about 3,890. Pressure on their habitat and poaching had seen their population decline to a low of 1,411 in 2006.

Data source:



✸ National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

✸ Rajya Sabha, Unstarred Question No. 688, 17 Dec 2018

✸ Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)

✸ Tiger Reserve Statistics, tigernet.nic.in, December 2018



