The National Tiger Conservation Authority's tiger tracking website is currently down but will be restored in a couple of months, say officials
Wildlife activists and enthusiasts have not been able to track tiger deaths for the last three to four months, ever since the National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) website tigernet.nic.in has been down. In response to mid-day's query, the NTCA revealed that 68 tigers perished between January and July 31 this year, with the second highest number of deaths in Maharashtra (12, trailing behind 16 deaths in Madhya Pradesh).
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The website would give details of tiger mortality across the country, including locations and cause of death. This information is all too important in India, which is home to 70 per cent of the world's tiger population, with 2,300 of the big cats in the wild. NTCA data also indicates that tiger casualties peaked earlier in the year, with 15 deaths in January, and have gradually decreased over the months to three deaths in June and five in July. This is not too far off the mark from the figures provided by the Conservation Lenses and Wildlife (CLaW), which also tracks big cat deaths.
Sarosh Lodhi, wildlife photographer and CLaW member, said, "Until two years ago, the NTCA website would not be updated timely. When they finally started doing it, it generated interest among wildlife enthusiasts. Since the beginning of this year , the site has been under construction, leaving enthusiasts with almost zero updates on tiger mortalities. "CLaW maintains records of tiger deaths, too, but it becomes absolutely impossible to get details from the interiors of jungles, which may not be covered by mainstream media either. I hope they restore the site soon and publish as much information as possible."
NTCA says
Speaking to mid-day, Dr Vaibhav C Mathur, assistant inspector general at the NTCA, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said: "The National Informatics Centre has given us very stringent conditions for developing the website, which is taking time. The developers have given us a time frame of two months."
Tiger trail
2.3K
No. of tigers in wild in India
68
No. of tiger deaths this year
70%
India's share of global tiger population
16
No. of deaths in Maha-rashtra
12
No. of tiger deaths in MP
09
No. of deaths in Karnataka
- The website tigernet.nic.in is a major resource to keep track of tiger deaths
- It has not been operational since last 3-4 months
- NTCA says it is under maintenance and will be back up in 2 months All figures according to NTCA
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