Tigress found dead in water canal outside Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

Bangalore: A five-year-old tigress was found dead in a water canal outside the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve on Saturday morning.

It is suspected that the animal might have been either electrocuted or poisoned. Soon after the postmortem in the evening, the forest department ann­ounced that the police will investigate the case since it’s an “unnatural” death.

The carcass was found in Taraka canal by villagers, who informed forest officials.

The tigress had a pellet under its skin, which was possibly fired at it in the past, but could have caused its death, said wildlife veterinarians, who conducted the autopsy.

Vinay Luthra, Wildlife PCCF, said that since there are no injuries on the tigress and the entire skin is intact, it is not a case of poaching.

“But it could either be due to poisoning or electrocution. The autopsy report revealed that there was no poison in the animal’s stomach and the lungs had no water indicating that the tigress did not drown to death. Since it’s an unnatural death, we have decided to hand over the investigation to the CID Forest cell,” he said.

But wildlife conservationists criticised the decision to hand over the case to the CID Forest Cell. They said this case too will end up like many other cases which have hit the dead end.

“It’s ridiculous that the CID Forest Cell is going to handle this case. In the last three incidents of tiger deaths due to poisoning, the CID Forest Cell has not made any progress. Of the three cases reported last year, two were from Nagarhole. This is the third such incident in the reserve in the last one year,” said a wildlife conservationist from Mysore.