According to Kalagarh Tiger Reserve officials, tiger carcass was discovered by a department’s patrol team on Saturday. “The carcass was decomposed and apparently 2-3 days old which was also confirmed by the doctors in their postmortem report on Sunday,” said DFO Kaulagarh Tiger Reserve Chander Kumar. The DFO also informed that preliminary investigations revealed that the tiger died due to territorial fight with another.

“Poaching angle could be ruled out as its canines, nails and other vital organs were intact with large number of wounds on back and around the neck,” said Kumar. Doctors who conducted the postmortem tired their best to look for bullet injuries but found none,” added Kumar. According to the DFO such big cat deaths could not be prevented but it indicates that density of big cat has gone up in the area. This was the second tiger casualty in Kalagarh Tiger Reserve and seventh in the State this year. The first tiger death recorded this year was on January 30 from

Fatehpur, Haldwani when Tarai West Forest Division officials recovered the tiger skin and its other body parts from five poachers. Second and third tiger casualties were: Two male tigers found dead on March 9 and March 17 respectively in Dela Range of Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Fourth tiger death was registered from Kaladungi range of Ramnagar Forest Division on May 23 and the fifth tiger death was recorded from Kalagarh Tiger Reserve on May 27. Sixth big cat casualty was in the form of a tigress’ carcass discovered from Pipal Padav forest range of Trai Central Division.

Incidentally, all the above tigers, except for the latest one, died under mysterious circumstances, although official version over each death was natural or due to injuries sustained in fight with other animals.

Besides this one maneater tiger was caught from Ramnagar Forest Division and sent to Nainital Zoo. It’s notable that the tiger casualties this year have outnumbered the previous year’s tally which was just two in 2008.