BHUBANESHWAR: Unrelenting poaching and electrocution have accounted for the death of 55 tigers in the past 10 years. While 25 big cats died due to poaching, four were electrocuted state forest, environment and climate change minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia in the State Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
Five tigers were killed in accidents and six died due to drowning, he added.
The minister said 48 leopards and seven Royal Bengal tigers died in the state in the past ten years.
In August, Singhkhuntia had also informed the House that over 2,850 wild animals were poached in Odisha in the last 10 years.
“As many 2,869 wild animals including tigers, bears, deers and elephants were poached during the last 10 years in Odisha and 6,960 poachers have been arrested,” Singhkhuntia had said in the Assembly.
Replying to another query, the minister said more than 1,140 people lost their lives in elephant attacks in Odisha in the last 10 years.
Responding to a written question by BJP MLA Prashant Jagdev, the minister said, 1,145 people lost their lives in elephant attacks from 2013-14 to 2023-24.
Similarly in the last 10 years, as many as 719 elephants have died due to various reasons in the state. At least 41 elephants were poached by hunters or wildlife smugglers in the state, the minister added.
