Nagpur: There have been 78 tiger deaths in the region over the last five years where the cause of death has not been ascertained. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) plans to discuss these deaths to arrive at some conclusion.
An NTCA committee comprising additional principal chief conservator of forest (APCCF) and inspector general (IG) of forest (Nagpur), assistant IG from Delhi, and deputy director of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Jabalpur, will meet officials from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh and Odisha at Van Sabhagruha, Civil Lines, in this regard on August 5 .
Of the 78 unexplained tiger deaths since 2012, MP reported 39, Maharashtra 35, Chhattisgarh 3 and Odisha 1. Of these, 25 happened in 2012, 12 in 2013, 8 in 2014, 11 in 2015, and 22 till July 2016.
It is surprising how reports regarding tiger deaths that occurred three to four years ago have not been submitted.
Shree Bhagwan, PCCF (wildlife), Maharashtra, said, "In every tiger death, a panchnama is prepared and one NTCA representative is always there. We follow the norm strictly and hence NTCA should have all the records."
Debabrata Swain, IG, Nagpur, said, "We will seek details of these deaths and submit a report thereon." A similar meeting was held in South region and will be held in other regions too.
TOI was the first to report distortions in tiger death data on tigernet.nic.in, the official directory of tiger mortality. In case of several deaths, no specific reasons was mentioned, indicating poaching.
There was complete mismatch between data collected by NTCA and Wildlife Protection Society India (WPSI), a NGO collaborating with state governments to monitor illegal wildlife trade.
The NTCA website did not report the latest tiger deaths.
