About one wildlife crime was registered everyday in 2018 by the wildlife enforcement authorities from across the country taking the total cases to 346. West Bengal topped the list (55) followed by Maharashtra with 43 cases and Assam with 42 cases.
“Indian authorities detected 346 cases of wildlife crime, including six elephants' death due to poaching and 21 cases of tiger poaching during 2018," as per the Government data.
According to the Union Ministry of Environment, a total of 346 cases of wildlife crime took place in 2018 across the country, against 395 cases in 2017 and 412 cases in 2016.
However, these are just tip of the iceberg as many cases go undetected, having moved to the cyberspace. With India's internet user population reaching nearly 500 million, cybercrime is now becoming a mounting concern.
India is only 2.4 per cent of world's land area, but contributes about 8 per cent of known global wildlife, including over 45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals.
In 2017 again, West Bengal recorded maximum number of cases (59), followed by Tamil Nadu with 44 and Assam with 41. In 2016, 66 cases each were reported from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, 45 cases from Maharashtra and 40 cases from Assam.
About elephant deaths due to poaching, the Ministry said that in 2018, a total of six elephants lost their lives to the hands of poachers, with two incidents reported from Odisha and one each from Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Jharkhand.
In 2017, eight cases of elephant deaths due to poaching were reported. Four incidents were from Assam, two from Odisha, and one each from Jharkhand and Nagaland. In 2016, 13 cases of elephant deaths due to poaching were reported. Four incidents were registered in Karnataka, two each in Assam, Kerala and Odisha and one each in Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
As per National Tiger Conservation of Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under the ministry, there have been 21 cases of poaching of tiger and 10 cases of tiger body part seizures during 2018.