New Delhi: The number of tiger deaths due to poaching has come down significantly in the last three years while elephant deaths because of the same reason have gone up, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
In response to a query in the House, Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey said in the last three years, 58 tigers were victims of poaching, out of which seven were killed in 2020, 17 in 2019 and 34 in 2018.
Sharing the data of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Choubey said 14 elephants died due to poaching in 2020-21, which is higher than 2019-20 (six deaths) and 2018-2019 (nine deaths).
The minister also shared with the Lok Sabha details of cases involving illegal trafficking of endangered animals.
In the last three years, there has been a decline in the number of cases of illegal trafficking of endangered animals and consequently the number of arrests, the House was told.
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While in 2019, as many as 805 cases of illegal trafficking of endangered animals were recorded, in 2020 the number came down to 601. In 2018, there were 648 such cases, the WCCB data showed.
Also, 1,231 people were arrested for animal trafficking in 2020, as against 1,505 in 2019. In 2018, as many as 1,099 people were arrested, the data shared with the Lok Sabha showed.
In 2020-21, a total of 93 elephants died due to various reasons like poaching, electrocution, poisoning and train accidents, the ministry of environment said. Around 115 elephants died in 2018-19 and 99 in 2019-20.
The ministry said in the last three years, a total of 222 elephants died due to electrocution out of which 65 elephants died in 2020-21, 76 in 2019-20 and 81 in 2018-19.
Forty-five elephants died due to train accidents out of which, 12 were in 2020-21, 14 in 2019-20 and 19 in 2018-19. Two elephants died due to poisoning in 2020-21 while no such deaths took place the previous year.
According to the last census, India is home to around 27,000 elephants and 2,967 tigers.
PTI
