GUWAHATI: Barely a fortnight after a tiger was poisoned to death in Assam's Orang National Park, a full-grown tigress was killed allegedly in a similar fashion at Kaziranga National Park on Thursday. Forest guards found the carcass of the adult tigress floating on the Brahmaputra near Hoflot forest camp of the park.
"We got information about the tigress floating on the river. It was a tigress, aged about seven," Kaziranga National Park director Surajit Dutta said. Park authorities have conducted a postmortem of the tigress and sent some samples to the state forensic laboratory and wildlife institute to discern the actual cause of its death.
"Our doctors have done the postmortem of the tigress and sent samples for confirmation of the actual cause of death," said Dutta. The director said the big cat might have been killed by some locals of the Char area, who were troubled by the animal for some time. "Four veterinarians conducted the autopsy of the tigress in the presence of officials from National Tiger Conservation Authority, Kaziranga director and other top forest officials at the park. The samples have been sent for forensic tests," said divisional forest officer (Kaziranga) Dibyadhar Gogoi.
He added, "We have found the carcass of an adult female Royal Bengal Tiger near Hoflot forest camp under the northern range (Biswanath ghat) of the park. The area in which the carcass was found was under the newly-proposed sixth addition of the park."
He said, "Although the cause of the animal's death is yet to be determined, from the preliminary investigation by veterinarians and Kaziranga forest officials, it is suspected the tigress died due to consumption of some toxic substance. However, the actual cause would be ascertained after the forensic laboratory test."
The divisional forest officer said, "We have conducted an intensive investigation among all concerned forest range officers and other staff in the sixth addition area of the park to find out if any miscreants were involved in the killing. As there are more than 70 cattle farms in the area, we suspect the tigress might have been killed in retaliation by some cattle farmers whose livestock were killed by the animal."
Gogoi, however, ruled out the possibility of poaching in case of the tiger death and said, "From the circumstantial evidence, we can say it was not an incident relating to poaching." Kaziranga witnessed five tiger deaths last year. Of five tiger deaths in 2010, one was killed in an attack by wild buffalos, while three died in territorial fights. One died due to old age ailments.
On December 27, a five-year-old tigress was poisoned to death at the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park by villagers from the Panchnoi area of the forest.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Hunt on for Corbett's wounded tigress
Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve: At the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve, a hunt is on for a wounded tigress that has killed four women since November. What's worse, the maneater was shot on Tuesday but couldn't be tracked down since then.
''A search is on for the man-eating tigress... we have built special machans and cages to trap it... we are trying to get the situation under control,'' said Rajesh Gopal, member, National Tiger Conservation Authority who is at the site to take stock of the situation.
The inability of the Forest Department to nab the tigress has incensed the villagers making the wildlife in this area vulnerable to man-animal conflict.
The adult tigress in question had proved to be a menace for all villagers from Dhikuli area adjoining the park. The four women who died were also from the same village and had entered the forest to
Even though it can, over a period of time, recover from a single-bullet injury on its own, the fact that it remains untraceable is worrisome for not just the villagers but also the authorities. And now, that the tigress is injured and in pain, it can only prove more dangerous.
''We need some time to identify the tigress... we don't want to make any mistakes,'' said Shrikant Chandola, the Chief Wildlife Warden of Uttarakhand.
Despite mobilising dog squads, searches on elephants and placing various kinds of baits, the tigress has not been spotted. Yet, wildlife authorities do not want to push harder because camera traps show presence of four tigers in the area and they don't want to hurt the wrong one.
''A search is on for the man-eating tigress... we have built special machans and cages to trap it... we are trying to get the situation under control,'' said Rajesh Gopal, member, National Tiger Conservation Authority who is at the site to take stock of the situation.
The inability of the Forest Department to nab the tigress has incensed the villagers making the wildlife in this area vulnerable to man-animal conflict.
The adult tigress in question had proved to be a menace for all villagers from Dhikuli area adjoining the park. The four women who died were also from the same village and had entered the forest to
Even though it can, over a period of time, recover from a single-bullet injury on its own, the fact that it remains untraceable is worrisome for not just the villagers but also the authorities. And now, that the tigress is injured and in pain, it can only prove more dangerous.
''We need some time to identify the tigress... we don't want to make any mistakes,'' said Shrikant Chandola, the Chief Wildlife Warden of Uttarakhand.
Despite mobilising dog squads, searches on elephants and placing various kinds of baits, the tigress has not been spotted. Yet, wildlife authorities do not want to push harder because camera traps show presence of four tigers in the area and they don't want to hurt the wrong one.
Tiger pelts put cops in a quandary
MYSORE: Police arrested a youth in possession of tiger pelts and a tusk in the city on Friday. But they have a real task on hand: to confirm if pelts and tusk are genuine.
While Aadil Pasha, 20, of Kalyanagirinagara is booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, police are awaiting confirmation from experts on the recovered products. He is remanded to judicial custody. Pasha was caught when he was trying to dispose of four tiger pelts and a tusk at Sunni Chowk.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Pasha, a security agency employee, procured it from a person in Shimoga for Rs 15,000 two weeks ago. But he didn't reveal the identity of that person.
DCP (L&O) Basavaraj Malagatti told reporters that he suspects if it is the real tiger skin. "Miscreants could have painted tiger stripes on cattle skin and sold it to Pasha who wanted to make quick bucks," he said.
While Aadil Pasha, 20, of Kalyanagirinagara is booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, police are awaiting confirmation from experts on the recovered products. He is remanded to judicial custody. Pasha was caught when he was trying to dispose of four tiger pelts and a tusk at Sunni Chowk.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Pasha, a security agency employee, procured it from a person in Shimoga for Rs 15,000 two weeks ago. But he didn't reveal the identity of that person.
DCP (L&O) Basavaraj Malagatti told reporters that he suspects if it is the real tiger skin. "Miscreants could have painted tiger stripes on cattle skin and sold it to Pasha who wanted to make quick bucks," he said.
Big cat collar beeps at Manas
The tiger with radio collar at Manas National Park. Picture by Jimmy Bora
Jorhat, Jan. 14: Forest officials heaved sigh of relief when a Royal Bengal tiger, captured in Sivasagar district after being embroiled in man-animal conflict and released at Manas National Park after being fitted with a radio collar about eight months ago, was located a couple of days back.
This was the first tiger in the state to have been fitted with a radio collar.
The radio collar was fitted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare-Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI).
“We have been trying to track the tiger for several months now but in vain. However, the tiger was caught on camera a few days back. It’s safe and looks healthy,” the forest official told The Telegraph.
The adult male tiger was tranquillised and captured from a human settlement by the forest department with assistance from the IFAW-WTI in March last year. It had killed two persons in Sivasagar district.
After short-listing three potential areas, Manas National Park was decided on as the most suitable place for the tiger. Accordingly, it was radio-collared for post-release monitoring and released at Manas.
Although the post-release monitoring continued, no signals were received from the tiger’s collar after a month from its release.
“We began receiving the signal again since mid-November, after a long gap. It was photo-captured on camera traps placed by Aaranyak, ATREE and WWF-India at Manas only a few days back. We are continuing to track it, though the signals received are inconsistent as the battery on the radio collar is dying. The radio collar is expected to drop off any time now,” Bhaskar Choudhury, an official of the WTI, said.
He said the best part, however, was the fact that there has no reports of direct conflict between the tiger and people residing near Manas. “There are no reports of the tiger killing any cattle in the last few months,” Choudhury said.
With no reports of attacks on humans reported since the tiger was released at Manas, translocation of a conflict tiger at a different location promises to strengthen the case for rehabilitation of tigers that accidentally come into contact with people.
“The photographs acquired through camera-traps indicate its survival in the wild. And there has been no report of attacks on people by this tiger since its release, presenting hope that rehabilitation can be a viable option for tigers involved in conflicts,” another official of the WTI said.
He said generally tigers involved in killing of humans are sent to zoos after being captured and in most cases these animals are killed.
“When tigers involved in conflict are captured, a nagging fear of further conflict sways the decision against these animals; they are put away ‘safely’ in zoos. Additionally, adult males have a ‘homing’ tendency, raising doubts on the success of such translocation. However, in this case, the authorities took a call in favour of giving the animal another chance and it has paid off,” the official said.
Jorhat, Jan. 14: Forest officials heaved sigh of relief when a Royal Bengal tiger, captured in Sivasagar district after being embroiled in man-animal conflict and released at Manas National Park after being fitted with a radio collar about eight months ago, was located a couple of days back.
This was the first tiger in the state to have been fitted with a radio collar.
The radio collar was fitted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare-Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI).
“We have been trying to track the tiger for several months now but in vain. However, the tiger was caught on camera a few days back. It’s safe and looks healthy,” the forest official told The Telegraph.
The adult male tiger was tranquillised and captured from a human settlement by the forest department with assistance from the IFAW-WTI in March last year. It had killed two persons in Sivasagar district.
After short-listing three potential areas, Manas National Park was decided on as the most suitable place for the tiger. Accordingly, it was radio-collared for post-release monitoring and released at Manas.
Although the post-release monitoring continued, no signals were received from the tiger’s collar after a month from its release.
“We began receiving the signal again since mid-November, after a long gap. It was photo-captured on camera traps placed by Aaranyak, ATREE and WWF-India at Manas only a few days back. We are continuing to track it, though the signals received are inconsistent as the battery on the radio collar is dying. The radio collar is expected to drop off any time now,” Bhaskar Choudhury, an official of the WTI, said.
He said the best part, however, was the fact that there has no reports of direct conflict between the tiger and people residing near Manas. “There are no reports of the tiger killing any cattle in the last few months,” Choudhury said.
With no reports of attacks on humans reported since the tiger was released at Manas, translocation of a conflict tiger at a different location promises to strengthen the case for rehabilitation of tigers that accidentally come into contact with people.
“The photographs acquired through camera-traps indicate its survival in the wild. And there has been no report of attacks on people by this tiger since its release, presenting hope that rehabilitation can be a viable option for tigers involved in conflicts,” another official of the WTI said.
He said generally tigers involved in killing of humans are sent to zoos after being captured and in most cases these animals are killed.
“When tigers involved in conflict are captured, a nagging fear of further conflict sways the decision against these animals; they are put away ‘safely’ in zoos. Additionally, adult males have a ‘homing’ tendency, raising doubts on the success of such translocation. However, in this case, the authorities took a call in favour of giving the animal another chance and it has paid off,” the official said.
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