MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a CID probe into the disappearance of iconic Tiger 'Jai' after he went missing from the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary located near Nagpur.
The seven-year-old tiger has been missing since April 18, 2016.
Jai arrived in sanctuary in 2013 by migrating nearly 150 Kilometers from the Nagzira-Navegaon Tiger Reserve in Gondia-Bhandara district. He was popular across the country and was credited for booting tourism and increasing the population of tigers in the region.
Jai was named after actor Amitabh Bachchan’s famous character in the hit 1975 Hindi movie, Sholay.
He was radio collared on September 15, 2015. However the satellite link failed on November 25, 2015 and again in April 2016 because of some technical snags when he was in Paoni.
The undisputed king of the Umred Karhandla forest was last sighted on May 8 when on a cattle kill in Brahmapuri.
Rescuers, wildlife experts and volunteers are all scouring the forest, trying to locate the 250-kilogram tiger.
The forest department of Maharashtra recently detained two suspected poachers from Kodurli village near Paoni range of Umred forest.
The Kodurli village is close to the spot where Jai was last sighted.