"Poachers' trap led to death of translocated tiger"

A translocated tiger, the carcass of which was found in an Odisha sanctuary last month, died after falling into a trap laid by poachers, two central government agencies dealing with wildlife have said.

This was stated by a joint inspection team of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in its report.

The report is at variance with the state government's claim that the big cat named "Mahavir" died after killing a porcupine, the spine of which was found in its stomach during post-mortem.

The report of the joint team of the NTCA and the WII said "Mahavir" had sustained deep wounds around its neck while trying to escape from a trap laid by poachers for catching wild boar.

The big cat died due to multi-organ failure as the wound had led to an infection, which, in turn, had led to sepsis, it added.

The three-year-old Royal Bengal Tiger was found dead in the core area under the Raigoda range on the Hindol-Narsinghpur border of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) on November 14.

A member of the WII involved in the investigation said, "The trap might have been set up to capture wild boar, so it cannot be called targeted poaching, but accidental."
Replying to a question, the WII official further said: "We need to take a serious lesson from this and formulate future strategies."