RAIPUR: The death of a male tiger under mysterious circumstances at Baikunthpur forest adjoining the Guru Ghasidas National Park, about 350 km north of Raipur, has bewildered the Chhattisgarh State Forest Department.
This is the third tiger death in the state since 2022 and the second suspected poaching reported this year after a tiger was killed in January in the same area.
Chhattisgarh has witnessed a depressing record in the ‘Save the Tiger’ mission with the big cat population in the state going down by around 59 per cent from 46 in 2014 to 19 according to the 2019 tiger census report. But officials now claimed to have improved the tally to 23 tigers.
A team of doctors conducted a post-mortem of the tiger, which was found dead by locals near the bank of river Khankopar close to Devshil Katwar forest village in north Chhattisgarh.
However, officials have not divulged any piece of information from the autopsy report amid conflicting inputs citing missing teeth and claws from the tiger’s carcass. The deceased tiger was believed to be seven years old.
Officials suspected the tiger was poisoned two or three days ago and claimed all body parts were found intact. A hunt has also been launched by the forest team to track down the poachers.
The state cabinet in August this year cleared the expansion of Guru Ghasidas National Park and creation of Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve, which awaits official notification, spanning an area of 2829.38 sq km after the approval was earlier secured from the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
Chhattisgarh, which was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in November 2000, has three tiger reserves.
A forest officer on condition of anonymity stressed the need for strengthening the dedicated efforts of the staff with effective monitoring and control. “If the element of fear vanishes on the field, we will not be getting encouraging figures on saving tigers in Chhattisgarh,” he said.