A fourth tiger death in the State, third in the Corbett Tiger Reserve alone, in the last three months was registered on Wednesday. The Reserve authorities have denied that poaching and poisoning were the cause behind the second big cat casualty within a week.
A male tiger, aged around 10-12 years, was found dead at compartment number 10 of Madhawal forest range in Kalagarh region of Corbett Tiger Reserve on Wednesday evening. The carcass was discovered by a patrol of forest employees, which immediately took it to the range office. According to senior officials of Corbett Tiger Reserve, it was a natural death and no poaching or poisoning was suspected. Accordingly, the region is fully screened off from human habitation and its body parts were intact.
Corbett Tiger Reserve Director Vinod Singhal confirmed the big cat's death and stated that it was a male tiger aged around 10-12 years. “A tiger approaches its senility at this stage and the tiger might have died due to injury and starvation. Porcupine quills were also found in its neck,” said Singhal.
The CTR director informed that preliminary investigation suggest that the tiger might have fought with a porcupine and got injured in the process, resulting in its inability to find food.
Singhal ruled out the possibility of poaching or poisoning in the death of the tiger. “The entire Kalagarh forest area is completely screened off from human occupation and movement and the carcass had all organs intact. That obviates the poaching angle,” said Singhal. “Besides this no other animal was seen in the vicinity of the tiger carcass that would have hinted at the possibility of it being poisoned,” informed Singhal, adding that the picture would be clear after receiving the postmortem report.
Incidentally, this will be the first ever occasion in Uttarakhand that postmortem will be conducted as per National Tiger Conservation Authority's norms. It's noteworthy that the State forest department authorities came under sharp criticism for conducting postmortem of tigers in violation of the NTCA norms. This time, however, they will conduct postmortem in presence of NTCA and a representative from NGO as nominated by the State Chief Wildlife Warden along with Government veterinary doctor.
This was Corbett's second tiger death within a week, while two others were reported in March within same time frame. Three of the four deaths were reported in Corbett alone, while one took place in Ramgarh Forest Division adjoining the Corbett.
