Death of tigress in Bandhavgarh enclosure: Conservation panel seeks explanation

Special Correspondent

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has sought details of incident that led to death of a 20-month tigress in an enclosure in Bandhavgarh National Park on November 29.

The deputy inspector general (DIG) of forests of NTCA, Sanjay Kumar has written to the chief wildlife warden of Madhya Pradesh, seeking details of the incident prior to the tigress’ death.

The tigress had died in the Jhurjhura enclosure where she had been shifted on November 23 after being captured from village Kathar in Manpur range buffer zone a day earlier.

This was 28th death of tiger during 2016 in Madhya Pradesh, the highest in country.

The national park authorities had claimed that the tigress had been killed by a tiger that had jumped the 12 feet high fence of the enclosure to attack the tigress.

However, on November 23, wildlife activist Ajay Dubey had written to the NTCA, complaining that the tigress had been captured at village Kathar by using an overdose of tranquiliser.

The tigress had been kept in a cage overnight and shifted to enclosure the next day, Dubey said in his complaint.

The activist also said in his complaint that the standard operating procedure for capturing tigers and shifting them to enclosure had not been followed. He had urged the NTCA to look into other illegal and unauthorized action of the Bandhavgarh National Park authorities.

Dubey, while talking to NewsBits.in, said that the Bandhavgarh authorities had circulated a false story of attack by tiger as cause of the tigress’ death to tide over their criminal negligence.

 “It seems impossible for the tiger to leap over such a high fence. She died due to overdose of tranquiliser,” the activist claimed.

He said that they are demanding security for the tigers in Madhya Pradesh and strict action against the authorities involved in negligence.