New Delhi, Dec. 27: Two-year-old male tiger Yuvraj, who has been missing from the Ranthambore wildlife sanctuary in Sawai Madhopur district for more than a month and had strayed outside the forest area, has reportedly been killed. He was killed by a poacher belonging to the Mogya tribe.
Forest officials, who were on the lookout for Yuvraj, arrested this poacher from near Bundi area and said that he has confirmed killing a tiger recently. Officials believe that this tiger was Yuvraj, though they are yet to discover the remains of the tiger.
As per reports, eight other tigers have been missing from this sanctuary for the last few months and there have been no reports of their being sighted anywhere either.
This newspaper had carried a report on Thursday stating that state authorities fear that Yuvraj might have been killed as forest officials as well as villagers had not sighted it ever since it strayed out of the reserve. The state government had even announced a cash prize on Yuvraj’s sighting.
According to forest officials, mogya tribe has been poaching tigers as well as other animals, predominantly in Rajashthan and Madhya Pradesh, for centuries and despite Centre and state government’s measures to dissuade them from this activity, most of them are still involved in poaching activities.
A recent census conducted by the state government has reported that the tiger population in the park has increased to 32 from the earlier count of 26 in 2005 but Centre is yet to confirm the figure.
After his disappearance, Union ministry of environment and forests along with the state authorities have decided to radio collar young tigers and so far three tigers have been radio collared in this tiger reserve.
