By IANS,
New Delhi : Even as India is striving hard to save big cats, about 32 tigers have died so far this year – nearly half them victims to poaching, parliament was informed Tuesday.
Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan told the Rajya Sabha that of the 32 tigers, 14 were poached and 18 had died natural deaths.
Despite several anti-poaching measures taken by the authorities, two tigers were poached inside tiger reserves while 12 were killed outside.
Since 2001, the country has lost 476 big cats – 185 fell to poaching and 291 died naturally.
According to the 2010 tiger census, there are 1,706 tigers left in the wild in India.
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