India lost 204 tigers in 2023, most of them in Maharashtra: WPSI

India lost a record 204 tigers this year from January 1-December 25, according to figures compiled by non-profit, Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).

Maharashtra, with 52 deaths, topped the list of Indian states. It was followed by India’s top tiger state, Madhya Pradesh with 45 deaths. Uttarakhand came next with 26 deaths, the figures accessed by Down To Earth showed.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala recorded 15 deaths each. Karnataka, which has the second-highest number of tigers in the country after Madhya Pradesh, registered 13 deaths. Assam and Rajasthan recorded 10 deaths each.

Uttar Pradesh recorded 7 deaths. Bihar and Chhattisgarh recorded 3 deaths each, with Odisha and Andhra Pradesh witnessing the deaths of two tigers each. Telangana recorded one tiger death in 2023.

The deaths this year have been termed in some media reports to be the highest in a decade.

The reasons for tiger deaths were varied. ‘Natural & other causes’ claimed 79 tigers, the biggest cause of death according to the figures compiled by WPSI.

This was followed by poaching due to which 55 individuals died. Infighting came next. It caused the deaths of 46 tigers.

Fourteen tigers died during rescue/treatment. Linear infrastructure/Roadkill/ Train or road deaths caused seven tiger deaths. Two tigers were killed by other species while one was shot by the forest department/ police or killed by villagers.

India’s tiger population increased by 200 from 2018 to 2022, according to the fifth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation (2022) released April 9, 2023. The number of tigers in India was 3,167 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018, the report showed.

The report was released at an event organised to commemorate 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’ in Karnataka’s Mysuru by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also launched the International Big Cats Alliance the same day.