Anindo Dey,TNN

JAIPUR: Officials of forest department have found the two cubs of the tigress which died in what appears to be a territorial fight at the Ranthambore tiger reserve. The eight-month-old cubs were found near a waterhole on Wednesday evening.

According to officials, nearly 80 persons were searching the area at the reserve where the eight-year-old tigress was found dead. "After searching for about three days, they finally found the cubs near a waterhole at the reserve. The cubs are in fine health. Though they did not have a meal till then, being next to a waterhole saved them from dehydration," he said.

It was on Monday evening that forest officials had found a decayed, maggot-eaten body of a tigress with body parts like teeth, nails and skin intact. Ruling out possibilities of poaching, the forest officials concluded that the death could be due to territorial fight.

"Investigations revealed that there is another tigress which stayed in close proximity to the dead one. She has three grown up cubs which were ready for separation having reached the age of three years. Therefore, there was a possibility of a fight breaking out amongst themselves as the mother and her cubs will try to establish their own territory. It was at this backdrop that the mother of the grown up tigress got into a fight with the one that is dead so as to be able to chalk out her own territory," officials said. Having recovered the carcass, the officials were in a fix as they were not sure if the cubs belonged to this tigress. But searches in the area revealed two lonely cubs and conclusions were drawn that the dead one was their mother.

Now the biggest task before the forest officials is to ensure the cubs remain safe from other tigers or tigresses and that they are able to get their meal. "We have fed them with some meat. Both of them have eaten about 6 kgs. But we have to find out a way to sustain them for a longer period of time. We don't want to give them off to a zoo and would prefer to keep them in the wild," officials added.

"Though territorial fights are common in jungles, a tigress killing another tigress is not so common. Probably in this case, one of the tigress would have punctured the other's blood vessel, resulting in death due to excessive bleeding."