New Delhi: In the last three years, 329 tigers died in India due to hunting, natural and unnatural reasons, the government said. It also said that 307 elephants died in the same period due to poaching, electrocution, consumption of poisonous substances, and train accidents. This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday. He told that 96 tigers died in 2019, 106 in 2020, and 127 in 2021. According to Choubey, 68 tigers were killed due to natural causes, five due to unnatural reasons, and 29 tigers killed by poachers.
According to the data presented in the reply of the Minister, the number of poaching cases has come down from 17 in 2019 to four in 2021. According to the data, 125 people were killed in tiger attacks during this period, of which 61 were killed in Maharashtra and 25 in Uttar Pradesh. Choubey said that in the last three years, 222 elephants have died in the country, including 41 in Odisha, 34 in Tamil Nadu, and 33 in Assam.
According to the reply, 45 elephants died in train accidents, including 12 in Odisha and 11 in West Bengal. Figures show that 29 elephant deaths were due to poaching with which 12 were killed in Meghalaya and 7 in Odisha, while 11 elephants died due to consumption of poisonous substances during this period and nine of these cases were from Assam.
