New Delhi, June 16 (UNI) In the past five-and-a-half months, India has lost 91 royal tigers—an alarming figure – due to poaching, territorial disputes, human-wildlife conflicts, train mishaps and natural causes, according to data from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
On an average, this equates to nearly 17 tiger deaths every month.
If this trend persists, the total number of tiger fatalities this year could surpass last year’s figure of 126. In the five-year period from 2019 to 2023, a total of 628 striped predators have died across India. The data from the NTCA, which oversee Project Tiger in India, shows 96 deaths in 2019, 106 in 2020, 127 in 2021, 121 in 2022, and 178 in 2023.
This widespread loss in the first five months till to date is uneven across states, with more than half ie 49 mortalities occurring in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra where train accidents and infectious disease too have been found to be the cause of the deaths.
Maharashtra alone reported the deaths of 26 tigers, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh with 24. Other affected states include Kerala (nine), Assam (eight), Uttarakhand (seven), Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh (four each), and Telangana (one).
The data also reveals that 42 tigers were found dead inside their habitat only which can be due to natural causes or territorial fights. At the same time, 35 were reported to have perished outside these protected areas, with officials attributing the deaths to man-animal conflicts and electrocution among others. A significant portion of these fatalities includes 14 cubs, 26 females, and 20 males.
However, data available from the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), an NGO engaged in the sector are more alarming. It indicates that tiger deaths have surged in 2025, with 120 reported fatalities so far—96 due to natural or human-induced causes and 24 linked to poaching and wildlife trafficking.
As per the NTCA data, over the last 12 years, 1,386 tigers have been lost across India, with nearly 50% of these deaths occurring within designated tiger reserves.
Conservationists say that despite rapidly growing urbanisation and human populations, around three-quarters of the world’s tigers now live in India.
YV Jhala, a conservationist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in his recent study published in Science journal, said that “from 2010 to 2022, tigers in India more than doubled from an estimated 1,706 to nearly 3,700”.
However, the study also warns that there is no need to be complacent. “While India’s tiger recovery is an extraordinary achievement, challenges remain. Large tracts of potential tiger habitat — spanning 157,000 sq km — are still devoid of tigers due to socio-political instability and habitat degradation,” it said.
The study has recommended expanding protected areas and habitat corridors, strengthening anti-poaching measures, promoting sustainable livelihoods for communities living near tiger habitats, enhancing human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies, including early warning systems and rapid response teams.
