Forest Officials Say Tigress Died in Fight Over Territorial Right

 Adilabad: A sub-adult tigress found dead near Daregaon in Kagaznagar mandal on Saturday was a victim of a fight over territory with another tiger, officials said on Sunday. The death might have occurred a week ago, in the tiger corridor of the Kawal tiger reserve.  

Forest officials of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district told the media that poisoning, electrocution or hunting was, prima facie, not the cause of death of the one-and-a-half year old tigress. Kagaznagar FRO S. Venugopal was present at the media meet.

Generally, sub-adult cubs are not involved in territorial fights and are protected by their mothers. “It is likely the other tiger involved in the territorial fight was an adult male,” the officials said.

The officials collected samples from the carcass and sent them to the a lab.

S. Shantharam, chief conservator of forests and incharge Kawal tiger reserve field director, and district forest officer Neeraj Tibrewal said the staff led by deputy FRO Rama Devi found the carcass at around 1.45 pm on January 6.

Along with two veterinary doctors, officials went to the spot for an investigation. They found a cattle kill a distance away from where the tiger carcass was found.  

There were marks indicating injuries on the neck and abdomen of the animal and hair in the mouth of the deceased tigress. These hairs were probably of another tiger. The tigress’ carcass more many scars.

Skin and other body parts including the nails were found to be intact. Based on these, the team concluded that this was a case of a territorial fight. The carcass was disposed of as per protocol and under the proper documentation.

Veterinary doctors who conducted a postmortem on the carcass said they did not find any symptoms of a change of colour to the carcass. There was no foul smell. These symptoms would have been found in the postmortem if the animal had been poisoned.

“Many organs were decomposed inside the carcass. This hinted that the death occurred five to six days ago,” the officials added.