Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), May 21 (IANS): Less than a fortnight after a tiger was found dead in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR), the decomposed carcass of another tiger was found on Wednesday in the reserve.
Earlier this month, an adult tiger, had died minutes after he was tranquilized by the forest team.
According to reports, on Wednesday evening, the forest department found the decomposed and "almost dried up" carcass of the adult tiger in the Khakra compartment of the Mahof forest range in the PTR.
Field director of PTR, H. Rajamohan, said a part of the tiger's body was eaten up by wild animals. "Nails and almost all the teeth are intact in the carcass. This suggests that it was not killed by poachers. The carcass seems to be over one week old," he said.
With this, PTR has lost three adult tigers since April 4. Two of them are dead, while one was sent to Kanpur zoo.
The field forest force has been directed to conduct combing operation in entire area to collect the clues about the tiger's death.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has nominated a representative to be present during the post-mortem for assessing the causes leading to tiger's death and submit an independent report.
Autopsy of the big cat will be conducted on Thursday in PTR by a panel of doctors from Bareilly's Indian Veterinary Research Institute. The designated representatives of the NTCA as well as chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh will be present there.
The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, according to the last census, had just over 50 tigers.
Meanwhile, Lucknow-based wildlife enthusiast Kaushlendra Singh, has written a letter to the Principal Secretary of Forest in Uttar Pradesh, Sudhir Garg, asking him to explain the special measures taken by the state government to protect the tigers in the PTR and other protected sanctuary.
"Why did the field forest force of PTR fail to trace the carcass for more than one week, especially when the spot was a junction point of two states?" he asked and added, "This lapse is concrete evidence that the claims of PTR officials of carrying out round-the-clock combing in wild are false."