In just a span of fortnight Bhandara and Gondia forest divisions have lost two male tigers, due to poaching. After a male tiger which was found electrocuted in Ramghat – I Reserve Forest of Arjuni Morgaon range near Khairi village, on Friday noon a male tiger B – 2 popularly known as ‘Rudra’ was found dead near Paladi – II village , the site is just around one kilometer from National Highway – 6 and some 7 kilometres from Bhandara. Koka Wildlife Sanctuary is also just about 5 kilometers from the spot. According to forest official as per prima facia reports electrocution may be the reason behind the death of the big cat.

As per details on Friday noon around 2 pm, herdsmen from Paladi village noticed their cattle making some panic call. The labourers working in the field of former MLA Anandrao Wanjari, rushed to see and found that a 7 feet long tiger was lying dead on ground and having bleeding from nose. They immediately informed the village Patwari who in turn informed to forest officials, MSEDCL and the police after which Bhandara’s Range Forest Officer Vivek Rajurkar with his team rushed to the spot. In the meantime the news spread like wildfire and people gathered near the site in good numbers.

As per some people, there are a good number of wild boars in the area and frequent poaching of the wild boars takes place. Maybe the trap was laid for the wild boars but the tiger got caught and killed, it is talked.

After some time Superintendent of Police Vasant Jadhav, NNTR’s Deputy Field Director Poonam Pate, Deputy Conservator of Forest Shivram B Bhalavi (Bhandara) Assistant Conservator of Forest Yeshwant Nagulwar, Saket Shende, Rathod, Atram, STPF (Special Tiger Protection Force), Honorary Wildlife Warden’s Shahid Pervez Khan, Nadeem Khan, MSEDCL’s Superintendent Engineer Rajesh Naik, Veterinarian Dr Gunwant Bhadke, Dr Vitthal Hatwar, Livestock Deputy Commissioner Anu Wararkar, Dr Deepak Madiguntawar, Dr Girish Vaidhya, Range Forest Officer Sanjay Mendhe of Flying Squad, Sachin Narad and others also reached the spot. Police force took the task to control the mob gathered.

According to DCF there was a 11 KV High Tension line passing near the place where carcass was found beside three holes of wooden poless were also found nearby. DCF Bhalavi has confirmed that looking to the circumstances chances of electrocution cannot be denied but the exact cause would be ascertained after the postmortem will be performed. It may be noted that under the NTCA guidelines it was decided to carry out the postmortem on Saturday morning. In the meantime carcass was brought to Gadegaon Depot.

MSEDCL Superintending Engineer Rajesh Naik said that the power line in the area has not tripped since last three days. Therefore it is suspected that the poachers must have used some high-tech method. It is reported that the poachers reached the site and when they saw that a tiger is trapped, they took with them the wooden poles with them.

Importantly there was frequent movement of Rudra in the territory and people have sighted him many a times. He was a jewel of the forest and was one of the sons of Jai. Honorary Wildlife Warden Shahid Pervez Khan has rued the death and has stressed need for raising patrolling in the region and to take effective mitigation measures to avoid such incidents in future. He has also raised doubt that there may be a poachers gang active in the region as after Khairi incident this is the second tiger to die.

Meanwhile, the Forest Department has announced reward of Rs 25,000 for the person sharing information related to poachers.