Team of experts to probe Royal Bengal Tiger's death in Odisha

An expert team comprising members of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Friday began a probe into a three-year-old tiger's death at Satkosia reserve in Odisha's Angul district, a forest department official said.

The NTCA and the WII will carry out a "thorough investigation" to ascertain the cause behind the death of Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) 'Mahavir' at Satkosia, he said.

"Both the organisations have taken Mahavir's death very seriously. They will find out if the animal died of natural causes or there were other reasons behind its demise," the official said.

A male RBT, translocated from Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, was found dead in the core area of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve on Wednesday.

 

Shortly after it was spotted, the NTCA advised the Odisha government to temporarily halt the inter-state tiger translocation programme, as part of which six big cats were to be brought to the reserve from Madhya Pradesh.

Two of the six tigers - 'Mahavir' and 'Sundari' - were translocated to the sanctuary earlier this year.

On Thursday, the state's forest department had also ordered a probe into the three-year-old RBT's death following a postmortem examination, in accordance with the NCTA protocol, which mandated the presence of forest officials and other stakeholders.

"We have been fully cooperating with the visiting team in their investigation," Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (wildlife) Sandeep Tripathy, said.

A maggot-infected wound, about six to eight days old, was spotted on the left side of the tiger's neck, Tripathy said.

"We are waiting for a detailed post mortem report, but the initial investigation suggests that the infection on the RBT's neck could have led to its death," he said.

Earlier this month, the other translocated tiger, 'Sundari', was also tranquilised and shifted to an enclosure, after the local people alleged that it had mauled two persons to death.