Carcass of tiger in well, dead tiger cub (Courtesy - Bandhavgarh Park Management)
Digital Desk, Jabalpur. Once again worrying news has emerged from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. There was a stir in the area after the decomposed body of a tiger was found in an old well in the field in Kudri Tola of village Raipur under Dhamokhar forest range of Umaria district on Thursday. As soon as the information was received, the team of park management and forest department reached the spot and started investigation. This area falls in the buffer zone of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
According to eyewitnesses, a strong foul smell was emanating from this old well, located about one and a half kilometers away from the village. From this it is being estimated that the tiger had died more than 48 hours ago.
Fear of falling into a well while hunting
Dr. Anupam Sahay, Field Director of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, said that prima facie the tiger appears to have died after falling into an old well while running for hunting. He said that the well was not visible due to the abundance of lantana bushes around it. Due to the information being received late in the evening, the body could not be taken out immediately, which will be taken out on Friday morning and a detailed investigation will be done.
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The dead body of a female cub was found a day ago
A day before this, on Wednesday morning, the dead body of a female tiger cub was found during patrolling in Kathali beat (RF-331) of Tala forest range of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. It was told that this could be the same cub, which had gone out of the enclosure during shifting from a smaller to a bigger enclosure.
Although Deputy Field Director PK Verma said that it could not be confirmed yet, but the age and sex of the cub matched the missing cub. The age of the dead cub is estimated to be around 7–8 months.
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In the preliminary investigation, the cause of death of the cub has been said to be a conflict with some other wild animal. As soon as the information was received, the Forest Department team took action as per standard operating procedure. The spot was investigated with dog squad and metal detector, in which no suspicious object was found. The post-mortem was conducted in the presence of the forest doctor and the necessary samples were sent to the laboratory. The cremation took place on Wednesday after all the legal procedures.
Second tiger death in two days, questions on monitoring
The discovery of the dead body of another tiger just 24 hours after the death of the tiger cub is raising serious questions on the functioning of the park management. The place where the tiger's carcass was found is said to be very close to the forest post, hence questions are being raised on the effectiveness of the surveillance system. Due to the continuous incidents, there is deep concern among wildlife lovers also.