BENGALURU: The death of an adult male tiger on January 13 when it was shifted from Bandipur to Bannerghata has raised serious concerns. However, noted tiger biologist Dr Ullas Karanth says capturing the animal was the right decision as this was a case of an old resident tiger that was injured, weakened and evicted from its home range.
In fact, the tiger was spotted on January 12 evening by Wildlife Conservation Society India field staff in the backwaters of Nugu reservoir near MC Thalalu village, Bandipur. Despite the crowd that had gathered there, the animal remained at the location and it was evident that the tiger had an injured right foreleg. The tiger, which was tranquilised by the Forest Department team, was shifted to Bannerghatta Biological Part but died even before treatment could be provided. The tiger has now been identified as NH-233 as per the Wildlife Conservation Society, India’s photo data base.
Dr Ullas Karanth, director-Science Asia, Wildlife Conservation Society, India, said, “We have photographs of over 900 individually identified tigers obtained from this landscape over the last two decades. The image of the tiger was used for comparison with the tiger images in our database and it was found to match with the individual NHT-233.”
The Bandipur-Nagarahole tiger population is at high densities of 10-15 tigers/100 sqkm. Because of high rates of reproduction, based on an abundant prey base, the population has high mortality and dispersal related losses of nearly 20 per cent per year, Karanth added.
He said, “Such mortalities and dispersal are more likely among sub-adults trying to find new territories, and among old, weakened residents who are evicted from their home ranges. NHT-233 appears to belong to the latter case. It appears that the animal was evicted from its territory, possibly following a fight or some other injury suffered through natural violence. The decision to capture the tiger before it could come into conflict with forest-edge communities is commendable.”