New Delhi: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has recorded 126 tiger deaths in 2021, the highest since it began collecting the data for the same a decade ago.

The NTCA on Thursday said that it is looking into the cause of the most recent death that took place in Madhya Pradesh. The tiger was found dead in Chhindwara of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, taking this year’s toll in the State to 44.

An official from the NTCA said that there can be numerous causes for deaths as the population of tigers is huge and a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) is followed to ascertain the reasons. Tiger deaths are under scrutiny of the State as well as the NTCA. Madhya Pradesh at maximum tiger deaths of 44 tigers is followed by 26 in Maharashtra and 14 in Karnataka. Tigers are now globally listed as “endangered” on the International Union for the Conversion of Nature (IUCN) Red list of threatened species.