Wildlife activists and enthusiasts have not been able to track tiger deaths for the last three to four months, ever since the National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) website tigernet.nic.in has been down. In response to mid-day's query, the NTCA revealed that 68 tigers perished between January and July 31 this year, with the second highest number of deaths in Maharashtra (12, trailing behind 16 deaths in Madhya Pradesh).

The website would give details of tiger mortality across the country, including locations and cause of death. This information is all too important in India, which is home to 70 per cent of the world's tiger population, with 2,300 of the big cats in the wild. NTCA data also indicates that tiger casualties peaked earlier in the year, with 15 deaths in January, and have gradually decreased over the months to three deaths in June and five in July. This is not too far off the mark from the figures provided by the Conservation Lenses and Wildlife (CLaW), which also tracks big cat deaths.