Bengaluru: Wildlife conservationists are demanding a high-level probe into the death of a tiger, shockingly caused during a fight with a leopard. The incident occurred on Saturday, midnight, inside D.B. Kuppe Wildlife Range of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, right in front of the forest staff quarters.
The tiger experts have voiced their suspicion over the mysterious death of a male tiger, and also said that the theory which is being put forth by the Forest Department has large loopholes in it. According to the forest officials, the tiger injured itself while chasing a leopard which scaled a staff quarters building. When the tiger failed to reach the leopard, while descending it broke its canine and later died about a mile away from where the supposed fight took place.
The wildlife experts point out that the tiger can jump up to 18 feet – there is a video record of a tiger jumping on to the mahout sitting on an elephant in Kaziranga National Park in Assam, so it’s absurd to believe that a 250 kg tiger could catch a 70 kg leopard which was running on the building. Moreover, the leopards often stray away and climb trees in case of danger. That is the reason many leopards are sighted on trees in Kabini area of Nagarhole, which has a dense tiger population.
“The theory over the way the tiger met its end, is full of holes. The nail marks being shown by the foresters are horizontal in nature, when they should have been vertical, which is what happens if the tiger descends or even climbs up. One of the staff members, Forester Shekaraiah had informed the HQs in Hunsuru at 12.30 am on Sunday about the incident, which is very unusual. Why must he report a jungle fight to HQs unless it was planned?” asked a conservationist. Besides these flaws, a serious lapse has been committed by the foresters, who have shifted the carcass from the scene of crime.
“The carcass was discovered on Sunday morning around 9 am but the foresters are claiming that they saw it in the evening. If the fight occurred on Saturday and the carcass was found on Sunday, why was the postmortem delayed?” he asked. Despite the uniqueness of the case, as there are hardly any records of tiger being killed in a duel with a leopard, who is a much smaller carnivore than a tiger, the Director of the Tiger Reserve, Mr R Gokul, did not attend the postmortem.
“The absence of the Nagarhole Park Director at the postmortem is highly objectionable and amounts to a serious dereliction of duty for which action must be taken against him,” said veteran wildlife conservationist K M Chinnappa.
“The NTCA representative D. Rajkumar appears to be the favourite of the department even during such sensitive postmortems for very obvious reasons , despite his clear lack of expertise, evident from his ridiculous statements reported in a section of the media,” Mr Chinnappa signed off.
