1 Jan 2020



NAGPUR: The country lost 110 tigers in 2019, a third of them to poaching. The year also saw the death of 491 leopards, according to figures compiled by NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). As many as 38 tigers were lost to poaching, up from 34 in 2018.
While there was a slight dip in leopard deaths from 500 in 2018, what remained a big cause of concern was the high number of leopard fatalities in road and rail accidents, which could be as high as a third of all deaths, said WPSI, which has been compiling data on big cat deaths for years.

In case of tigers, there was a marginal rise in the number of deaths compared to 2018, when 104 tiger deaths were recorded.

“No general inference can be drawn from these figures. Every landscape has its own set of pressures and problems, but leopards are getting killed in road and rail accidents, which is worrisome. It is the result of not just increasing traffic volumes but also increased speed due to widening of roads,” said Nitin Desai, WPSI’s Central India director.

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