<span style="color: #222222;">Environment Ministry today said, certain media reports have highlighted the death of tigers during 2021 in a manner which is a lopsided view of tiger conservation in the country. In a clarification, the Ministry said, the manner in which the figures available on the National Tiger Conservation Authority's website have been used in these reports causes alarm and does not take into account the gamut of processes that go into dealing with tiger death in the country.<br />''<br />''The Ministry said, certain media reported that out of 126 instances of tiger deaths, 60 tigers had died due to poachers, accidents, man-animal conflict outside protected areas while ignoring the process involved in ascribing tiger mortality cause. The Ministry stressed that the NTCA has a stringent protocol to ascribe cause to a tiger death, which is treated as unnatural, unless otherwise proved by the State concerned through submission of necropsy reports, histopathological and forensic assessments besides photographs and circumstantial evidences. It is only after a detailed analysis of these documents that the cause of death of 60 tigers outside tiger reserves can be ascertained.<br />''<br />''The Ministry said, due to efforts of the government, the tiger population has been taken from the brink to an assured path of recovery, which is evident in findings of the quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation conducted in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. These results have shown a healthy annual growth rate of tigers at six per cent, which offsets natural losses and keeps tigers at the habitats carrying capacity level.</span><br />