11-year-old tigress rescued at Bandipur Tiger Reserve

Mysuru: A two-year-old male tiger died after getting trapped in a snare, kept for wild boars, at Metikuppe Forest Range in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. The carcass of the tiger was found at an agricultural land at Agasanahundi village located about 300 mts from the forest.

It is said that the tiger was found lying in trench located between the lands belonging to Girish and Balashankar. On receiving the information Nagarahole Tiger Reserve Director P.A. Seema, ACF S.D. Madhu, Metikuppe RFO M.R. Rashmi, NTCA Representative Thammaiah, Wildlife Board Member Ravindra Raghunath and others visited the spot.

Sources said that the farmers had kept the snare to capture wild boars from damaging crops. Unfortunately, the male tiger which was separated from his mother recently got trapped while marking its new boundary. The Forest sleuths, after mahazar, shifted the tiger carcass to another location where Dr. Ramesh conducted the post mortem before it was cremated as per the rules. A case has been registered against the land owners. 

Meanwhile, the wildlife activists have urged the Forest Department to conduct a thorough inspection to remove the snares kept in the agricultural lands located in the forest fringes.

Following the tiger’s death, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre has ordered a probe by a team led an officer of Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) rank. He also said that action would be initiated against the staff members on finding lapses while patrolling.

Tiger rescued in Bandipur

In another incident, the Forest officials rescued an 11-year-old tigress spotted at Channamallipura village located at Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR).  The incident occurred about five days ago. The villagers on spotting the tigress informed the Forest officials, who rushed to the spot and tried to chase the tigress back to forest using the tamed elephants Mahendra and Bheema. However, after finding out the wildcat was in an exhausted state, the Forest officials captured the tigress and shifted it to the wildlife rehabilitation centre at Koorgalli in Mysuru.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director S. Prabhakaran, Conservator of Forest Ravishankar, ACF Manjunath, RFOs Manjunath, D. Puneeth Kumar, Nisar Ahmed, Vairamudi, Gundlupet Inspector Jayakumar, SI Naresh and others were present.

It is suspected that the tigress is the mother of a tiger cub found on Mar. 23 at the same location. The tigress and cub have been kept in adjacent cages. The Forest officials have been watching the movements and behaviour of the tigress to know if the cub belonged to it.