Bahraich, Jan 16 (IANS): The carcass of a tigress has been recovered in Utar Pradesh's Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary.

The forest department is scrutinising the tiger database to find out whether the tigress belongs to Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) or to Nepal, said divisional forest officer (DFO) B. Shiv Shankar.

The DFO said a panel of five members including veterinary experts have conducted a post-mortem examination of the tigress as per the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Monday.

Field director (FD) Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) Lalit Verma who was also present, said no injury mark was found on the carcass of the tigress.

Besides, all the canines and nails were intact.

Moreover, no fracture was found during the post-mortem examination.

Verma said it might be possible that the tigress had been suffering from a fatal disease. He said vital samples of the carcass were being sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) Bareilly to ascertain the actual cause of the death.

DFO KWS Shiv Shankar said the tigress was about 3 to 4 years old whose body was found floating in a stream of Chaudhri Charan Singh Barrage on Sunday night.

On being informed, forest employees reached the site and fished out the body from the barrage on Monday.

“We have been scrutinising the tiger database to ascertain whether the tigress belongs to the KWS or to Nepal,” Shiv Shankar said.

There is a corridor known as ‘Khata Corridor’ which connects Verdiya National Park of Nepal and (DTR).

Wildlife expert Gyan Prakash Singh said rhinos, elephants and tigers use this corridor to move between the two countries.