A tigress was found dead near the Mahua Upri camp within the Kariwah circle in the Kanha National Park on Wednesday. The tigress was in the prime of life and no external injuries were found on the body leading the forest department to suspect poisoning to be the cause of death.
PCCF (Wildlife) PB Gangopadhyay while speaking to The Pioneer said that a patrolling party discovered the carcass of a tigress lying within the forest about three kilometres from the periphery of the Kanha National Park. Park Director Khageshwar Naik reached the spot and recovered the body of the tigress.
Gangopadhyay said that the tigress appeared to have died two to three days ago. He added that a fresh kill of a sambar was also found close to the tigress. The post mortem of the tigress suggested that the tigress had consumed the meat of the sambar. This has led the Forest department to probe the possibility of the sambar carcass being poisoned by persons unknown resulting in the death of the tigress.
Cases of poisoning of cattle carcasses had been reported earlier and were attributed to the cattle owners extracting revenge for their losses. However, the poisoning of the sambar carcass suggests poaching to be the motive.
The Kariwah circle is a highly sensitive area of the Park and accorded a high degree of protection. Unfortunately, wildlife deaths are not new at Kanha. Eight months back, a tigress was found dead in mysterious circumstances within the Park. It took the management as many as three days to learn of the death of the tigress.
