Poachers killed 58 tigers in 3 years

Fifty-eight tigers were victims of poaching in last three years, of which seven were killed in 2020, 17 in 2019 and 34 in 2018, MoS for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey said in the Lok Sabha. Choubey said 14 elephants died due to poaching in 2020-21, six in 2019-20 and nine in 2018-2019. He said electrocution killed 222 elephants in last three years.

8.55 cr rural households have tap water

Of the 19.22 crore rural households in the country, 8.55 crore have the provision of tap water supply at their homes, Jal Shakti Ministry Prahlad Singh Patel told the Rajya Sabha on Monday. He said of 17.01 lakh rural habitations, 13.39 lakh (78.70 per cent) have the provision of potable drinking water. He also said 0.43 lakh (2.5 per cent) rural habitations are reported to have drinking water sources with water quality issues. PTI

190 defence personnel died of Covid: Govt

A total of 190 personnel died of Covid in the armed forces, with a maximum of 137 deaths being reported in the Army, 49 in the Air Force and four in the Navy, MoS (Defence) Ajay Bhatt said in the Rajya Sabha. Bhatt said 45,576 cases were reported in the Army, 14,022 in the IAF and 7,747 in the Navy. In all, 1,311 family members of serving Army personnel died of Covid. PTI

Tharoor’s Twitter caption sparks row

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday posted a selfie with six women MPs on Twitter with a caption: “Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?”, triggering a row with many rights activists and women organisations accusing him of “sexism”. Faced with severe criticism, Tharoor later apologised for offending “some people” and said the “whole selfie thing” was done at the women MPs’ initiative in “great good humour”. PTI