A tiger spotted in the Corbett Tiger Reserve. File   | Photo Credit: AP

As many as 384 tigers have been killed by poachers in India in the last 10 years, according to the reply to a question under the Right to Information.

Between 2008 and 2018 (till November), 961 persons have been arrested for allegedly poaching tigers.

The information was given by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in response to a question filed by Ranjan Tomar, a Noida advocate and RTI activist. Mr. Tomar asked the WCCB for the number of tigers killed by poachers in the last 10 years and the people arrested and convicted.

“As per the data available on the 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 poachers have been arrested...,” the reply said.

The WCCB, however, said no information was available on the conviction of the accused.

“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.

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.

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