New Delhi, June 6 (IANS): The Central government on Saturday rebutted the claim that tiger deaths are increasing in the country and asserted that their population is on the rise at six percent annually.

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, stated that tigers have been brought back from the brink to an assured path of recovery.

The authority said that the facts are evident from the 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 6%, which offsets natural losses and keeps tigers at the habitats carrying capacity level, in the Indian context," it stated.

The NTCA said that from 2012 to 2019, the average tiger deaths per year in the country hovered around 94, which is balanced by the annual increase as highlighted by this robust growth rate.

"In addition, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has taken several steps under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger to address poaching, which too, is significantly controlled as seen in the confirmed poaching and seizure cases," it added.