Tigress, 4 foetuses found dead in Umrer-Karhandla
   Date :23-Nov-2020

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Staff Reporter :
 
A tigress, aged 3-4 years, was found dead in Umrer-Paoni-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary on Sunday. Also, 4 tiger foetuses, around 7-8-weeks-old, were also found nearby. During spot verification, as per the SOP of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the carcass was found to have been dragged upto a distance of about 50 meters inside the thick forest. As per observations during postmortem and circumstantial evidence, prima facie, and internecine fight can be attributed as a cause of death.
 
Several signs and indications of fighting were found in the nearby stream including blood trails, multiple tracks of pugmarks, drag marks, heavily disturbed ground and body hair spread everywhere including on the vegetation. A forest official informed that a forest guard, who was on regular patrolling duty, noticed the carcass in Compartment No 1452/1 of the TAS beat of the sanctuary. The spot is inside forest and nearby village is about 3 kms away. Following the information, DFO Bor Rahul Gawai whowas in the tour there reached the spot. Postmortem was carried out in presence of veterinarians Dr Chetan Patond, Dr Syed Bilal and Dr L A Khan, LDO Nand, in presence of Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Pench Tiger reserve, DFO Bor and Sanjay Karkare, Asst. Director, BNHS as the representative of NTCA and Dr Vasanta Kahalkar, Assistant Professor as the representative of CWLW.
 
The carcass was found eaten up from left side and had the rib cage broken. There were puncture marks on the ventral neck (due to canines) and death might have caused due to asphyxia and bleeding. Samples have been collected, camera traps have been deployed to collect additional information. All possible information is being collected to rule out any other possibilities as a cause of death. The carcass was disposed-off as per the NTCA SOP. The tigress is an adult female captured during the last P-IV exercise. She was the new entrant in Umrer-Paoni-Karhandla.