Sanatan, divisional forest officer (DFO), Terai central division, said, "A five- or six-month-old male cub was found dead. It must have strayed out of the adjacent forest, part of Tanda range and reached the tracks."

The carcass was spotted by local residents who informed police and forest department officials. A forest department team rushed to the spot and took charge of the carcass. It was cremated after a post mortem at a medical facility in Haldwani. "The post mortem confirmed that a train had hit the cub, which resulted in fatal injuries. The body was cremated immediately after the post mortem," added the DFO.

The terai arc is home to about 22% of the Indian tiger population in the wild. Earlier, at a meeting organized by the state forest department, Global Tiger Forum and National Tiger Conservation Authority on October 2015, a detailed plan on protecting tigers in territorial divisions and unprotected areas other than national parks was discussed.

At the turn of the century, India was home to more than 40,000 tigers but shrinking of habitat, lack of proper food and shelter, increasing human intervention and encroachment and excessive poaching pushed the species to the brink to extinction.

According to the census report released by National Tiger Conservation Authority in January this year, Uttarakhand has the second-highest density of tigers nationally, with 340 of the felines in the wild. Karnataka has the largest number of tigers at 406. With an increase of 113 tigers, Uttarakhand has registered a 50% growth in tiger population since 2010, when the state had 227 tigers. The total number of tigers across the country is estimated at 2,226.