384 tigers killed in past 10 years, 961 poachers nabbed, reveals RTI
Noida, Dec 7: A total of 384 tigers have been killed in the country in the past 10 years, from 2008 to 2018 (till November), and 961 poachers have been arrested during the period, reveals an RTI reply.
The information was given by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau or WCCB in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by Noida-based advocate Ranjan Tomar.
Tomar, also an RTI activist, had asked the WCCB the number of tigers killed by poachers in the last ten years and the people arrested and convicted for the same.
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"As per the data available in records of the Bureau based on the information received from the State Forest and Police authorities the total number of tigers killed by poachers in the last 10 years is 384 and 961 number of poachers arrested in the tiger cases," the reply stated.
However, the bureau said that no information was available with it regarding conviction of the accused in these cases.
"The data makes it clear that successive governments have not been able to check killing of tigers by poachers and therefore there is a need for a special initiative to conserve this wild species or make changes in current laws to make them more effective else," Tomar said.
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For conservation of the country's national animal, the government had launched 'Project Tiger' in 1973. As per a 2014 assessment, India has the highest number of tigers in the world at 2,226, according to the website of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.