DEHRADUN: In a deadly battle for territorial dominance among tigers in the Kalagarh Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand has lost two tigers. Of the two, one was killed during the fight and another, who was badly hurt, later succumbed to his injuries on Friday.
The tiger was found dead in Corbett’s Kalagarh Tiger Reserve (KTR) Division in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region on Friday. A leopard was also found dead in Gangolihat. This is the third tiger death in the region in a month. Earlier, a tigress had died here on May 20 and a tiger on May 5. Since the discovery of the tiger’s body, the forest department officials have been in shock, causing a stir in the department.
KTR Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Neeraj Kumar Sharma told the daily, “The patrolling team spotted a tiger lying on the ground at Kalu Shaheed West Beet in Sona River (Morghatti) range. After monitoring for a long time, when the tiger did not move, the patrol team went closer and saw that it was dead.”
DFO Sharma said, “It is the rule of a forest, whenever the tiger underlines its area, it implements two types of methods — Firstly, by scraping the bark of the tree with its paws, the tiger marks that it has dominance in that area and secondly, by it urinates, the strong stench of which makes its presence felt in that area.” Any other big cat does not enter that area.
Veterinary doctors from Corbett and Kotdwar have been called and the viscera has been preserved by conducting a post-mortem on the tiger’s body. “All the organs of the tiger are safe but deep marks of conflict with another tiger have been found on the body of the dead tiger. Prima facie, the cause of death appears to be a conflict between the two. The dead tiger is a male, aged around six to seven years,” said DFO Neeraj.
Sharma also said, “On May 5, a five-year-old male tiger was killed in a conflict at Nalkatta in the same area. It is feared that this tiger may have been injured in the conflict with the other tiger. Efforts were on to trace it, but in vain.”Earlier on May 20, a tigress was killed in Morghatti and Pakhro areas of Sonnadi. Forest officials are treating all three cases as natural deaths.