International Tiger Day, is an annual celebration to raise awareness for tiger conservation, held annually on 29 July. It was created in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit. The goal of the day is to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.

India holds over half the world’s tiger population. 1,400 tigers are spread over more than 40 national parks in the country. There have been more cases of tiger poaching and tiger parts seizures this year than all of 2015.  A 2010 census revealed that tigers may only survive another 15 years at the rate at which they are disappearing.

74 tigers died in various tiger reserves of the country. The last tiger died on Wednesday (July 27) at Orang Tiger Reserve, Assam and details of death are awaited.

Madhya Pradesh with 20 deaths leads the pack followed by Uttarakhand (10), Maharashtra (8) Karnataka (7), Tamil Nadu (6) and Kerala (5).  Investigations being tardy and long drawn – details on the reasons are still sketchy in the case of 59 tigers. Of the 15 investigated, only two tigers have succumbed to natural causes, four died due to poisoning and one was electrocuted, one drowned, three in a fight, one killed in a conflict, a tigress died due to injury, one in an accident, and one animal was poached.

However, wildlife experts say that 30 or more animals have been poached in the last seven months.

As per 2014 tiger census, there were 2,226 tigers in India, almost 60 per cent of the world’s tiger population. However, these happy figures may be dented now as poaching has been on the rise in some tiger reserves. Two states show the maximum deaths with monthly reports of seizure of tiger skin, claws, teeth, bones, etc

The number of tigers killed and seized for its body parts vary between 50-60 with Tigernet and WPSI differing on both death numbers and seizures. As per Tigernet, till July 27, 2016, 59 tigers were killed with seizure of 15 body parts. Tigernet is the official database of National Tiger Conservation Authority.

However, as per Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), this year, till July, out of the 50 tigers that have been killed, 31 lost their lives due to poaching. If 15 died due to poisoning, electrocution and were killed by poachers, another 16 animal body parts were seized. Compared to this, last year, out of 91 tigers that were killed, 26 were poached and their body parts seized.