Cubs death: Govt plans SIT probe in disappearance of tigress

A day after four tiger cubs died reportedly due to starvation in Chandrapur district forest, the Maharashtra government has decided to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising CBI and forest department officials to probe the disappearance of the cubs' mother.
"The mother of these 2-3 weeks old cubs suddenly disappeared due to which the cubs had not been fed for last three days.
"The question before us now is to find out what happened to their mother, whether the tigress has been hunted by poachers or some local farmer has done mischief. There are other possibilities like the tigress dying of thirst or falling into a well also," state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar told PTI.

"We have thus decided to form a SIT, comprising officials from the CBI and the forest department to probe into the disappearance of the tigress. There are officials in the CBI who are experts in incidents relating to animal disappearances. We have sought their help," he said.
Mungantiwar said that the tigress did not disappear from a tiger conservation forest where the government already has a tiger protection force in place, or else the cubs would not have died of malnutrition.
"The place where the incident has happened is not a natural jungle. It's way outside the buffer zone as well. Here plantations have been done artificially. We have now put camera traps in the area. We also suspect snake bite to be one of the causes of disappearance," he said.

The minister also said that the government has learnt a lesson to keep a watch on tigers outside sanctuaries, as their number has increased considerably in last two years.

"As of now, there are 190 tigers above two years of age in Maharashtra. The number of cubs totals to around 50-60. Natural deaths occur after tiger reaches 12 years of age, but in the last two years there has been no poaching incident," he said.
Yesterday, villagers of Pathri detected the three carcasses of tiger cubs under Saoli forest range near Gosikhurd canal in Chandrapur. The spot is at-least 50 kms away from the Tadoba tiger sanctuary.

On being informed, the forest officials searched the area and found another cub which was alive. It was taken to Chandrapur for treatment, but it did not survive.