NILGIRIS: In a suspected case of overdose, an eight-year-old female Nilgiri Tahr was found dead at Avalanche Forest in the Mukurthi Forest range in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on Friday afternoon, hours after receiving sedation for radio-collaring.
Aimed at tracking the animals, members associated with the Nilgiri Tahr Project first attached a radio collar to a male tahr. Subsequently, they attached a collar to a female tahr at Irumbu Palam Road in the Western Catchments police limits around 12 pm on Friday and released it inside the forest.
However, within two hours, the animal was found dead. Postmortem revealed that the animal died after its inner organs, like its heart and kidney, weakened allegedly due to the sedative. The postmortem was conducted by a team comprising the HOD of the Wildlife Science department at the Madras Veterinary College, C Srikumar, and Veterinary Assistant Surgeons, E Vijayaragavan of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) and K Rajesh Kumar of Theppakkadu. They also took samples of the animal’s organs and sent them to laboratories for tests.
A senior official of the Nilgiri Tahr Project told TNIE that despite being administered IV and treatment on ventilator support for an hour, the animal could not be saved. “So far, four Nilgir Tahr animals (three male and one female) were sedated before fixing radio collars on them this year. However, the female one has died now. We will get a clearer picture after the test results arrive from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Uttar Pradesh and TANUVAS, Chennai and the Advanced Institute For Wildlife Conservation,” the official added.