New Delhi: Forty tigers have died since the beginning of the new year, the government informed Parliament Monday, although an official said there’s no cause for concern.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the minister of state for environment, forests and climate change, told the Lok Sabha that the data was of until 5 March.
“In the wild several factors like old age, diseases, internecine fights, high infant mortality, electrocution, snaring, drowning, road/rail hits etc. account for a majority of tiger deaths,” he said in response to a question asked by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Keshari Devi Patel, Sanghmitra Maurya, and Chandrasen Jadon.
ThePrint reported last month that barely two months into 2023, India had already lost 37 tigers.
Government data shows that over 100 tigers die every year. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), 354 tigers died between 2020 and 2022 — 106 in 2020, 127 in 2021 and 121 in 2022.
“It’s normal for the mortality rate to vary from year to year. Seen in isolation, the number 40 seems like it’s a lot, but the population is also growing. Over time, the population has stabilised,” an NTCA official told ThePrint.
According to the NTCA data, a little over 50 per cent of deaths happen within tiger reserves, with natural causes being the foremost reason.
India’s tiger population has grown at a rate of 6 per cent per annum between 2006 and 2018, NTCA data show. The last tiger census in 2018 pegged the India’s striped cat population at 2,967. The next tiger census is due to be released this year.
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Unreleased funds
In his response, Choubey revealed that Rs 78.7 lakh was released under the centrally sponsored Project Tiger in 2022-2023 — just 58 per cent of the total allocation of Rs 188 lakh.
This is an anomaly, given most funds allocated under the Project Tiger in previous years are usually fully disbursed.
The NTCA official cited a new fund disbursement regime introduced this year as the reason for the delay in disbursal of funds.
According to the new regime, the government will only disburse more funds after states provide proof of utilisation of the previously released money.
The states are also required to release its own share of funds within 40 days of central disbursement, failing which they will have to pay an interest of 7 per cent per annum.
“This is a new regime to introduce financial discipline, but it requires a lot of compliance, so it’s taking time,” the NTCA official said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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