Amid reports that poaching activities in Uttarakhand had gone up in the recent past, the Corbett Tiger Reserve lost one more big cat seven days ago which was only discovered on Tuesday. On the other hand, two juvenile tuskers died in Haridwar and Lansdowne Forest Divisions despite best efforts by the vets to save them.
A tiger, around 13-14 years old, was found under mysterious circumstances in Compartment IV of Patharva West Beat of Dhela Range in Corbett Tiger Reserve on Tuesday evening. Reserve officials have claimed that it had died a natural death due to old age. However, they failed to explain why dead tiger's visceral parts were not sent for lab examination to the WII.
The dead tiger was ill for several days and locals had often spotted him moving about in the area,” informed Dhela Range Officer Shivraj. He said the tiger had died on March 2 and the body was first spotted by the beat officer on Tuesday evening. “The body had decayed but its parts specially, the canines and nails were intact,” said the Range officer, adding, “Prima facie it appears the big cat had died of natural causes due to ageing which is why his body was immediately disposed of after postmortem”.
When asked why the dead tiger's body parts were not sent for viscera examination to verify if the big cat was poisoned or not, the Range officer failed to say much adding that it was not possible as dead beast's body was badly decomposed. Wildlife activists have questioned Corbett officials' decision not to go for viscera test of the dead tiger. “They should have compulsorily opted for viscera test as this would have helped in establishing real cause of death”, said Rajinder Agarwal, WPSI activist. Incidentally, Dhela range is close to Kashipur and Ramnagar forest areas, highly prone to poaching activities.
Of two more wildlife deaths on Tuesday, a 13-14 years old tusker died in Lansdowne Forest Division despite efforts by a team of veterinary doctors to save the life of pachyderm for three days. “The juvenile tusker was first seen limping with injury on right front limb on March 7 when a group of elephants was crossing River Khoh under Dugadda forest range near Kotdwar,” informed Nishant Varma, DFO Lansdowne. “The tusker was found lying at the same place next morning following which a team of forest employees with the help of doctors began treatment. However, the pachyderm did not respond to medicines and died on Tuesday evening,” said Varma.
Second pachyderm's death occurred at Haridwar Forest division when the newly born tusker, three-day-old died of infection at Chandi Compartment 4 in Shyampur under Chila Range of Rajaji National Park. According to postmortem report, the baby tusker died due to inborn infection and less developed lungs.
Adding to this score, two recently recovered leopard skins from three poachers arrested by the UP STF in Meerut has taken the wildlife death toll to more than 15 in the last one and half months. Incidentally all dead animals come under Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act of India. Three poachers arrested by UP police were identified as Nadim, Anish and Kasim who admitted that they were active in Uttarakhand for the past 5-6 years. Leopard hides recovered from poachers were also brought from the hill State. Nine leopards were already killed in the past one and a half months. Latest dead leopard was the Bageshwar beast killed last week.
