Nagpur: Two tiger cubs, both around one-month-old, were found dead in Compartment Number 255 (CN 255) of Paoni UC buffer area of the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) on Sunday. The Forest Department believes that the cause of death is abandoning of cubs by tigress due to unknown reasons.
The carcasses of both cubs were noticed by a patrolling team in CN 255 on Sunday morning. Both tiger cubs were first spotted in camera traps on August 27 and 28 night when they were moving near the camera trap. They were spotted again near Khapa Protection Hut of Paoni UC in the morning of August 29.
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Saturday 28 Dec. 2024
According to the Forest Department, the cubs moved into thick forest after August 29. To monitor the movement of cubs who were noticed without their mother, the forest team placed more camera traps all over their movement area in the forest. Along with this, monitoring teams were also formed by PTR management. After an intense search operation by the monitoring team, it heard a tiger call in the same area on the night of August 29. The team found pugmarks of the tigress on August 31 along with one cub near the CN 255 and Micropahadi area of the forest.
The camera traps also captured photographs of another tigress T24 in the area on September 2. The search operation concluded on September 3 when the team found two carcasses of cubs in the forest. The team also found a pugmark of the tigress near the carcasses. In the same area, a pugmark of another tigress and a leopard was also recorded. There is a possibility of the presence of one male tiger in the area.
After getting the information about the carcasses, the Deputy Director and Field Director in charge of PTR and other officers immediately rushed the spot. The area was cordoned off and panchnama took place to find out any evidence from the spot. The operation took place as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) SOP.
The panchnama took place in presence of Ajinkya Bhatkar, Honorary Wildlife Warden and representative of NTCA; Mandar Pingle, representative, PCCF (WL) and Satpuda Foundation; Ravi Uikey, Police Patil, Wagholi village; Prabhu Nath Shukla, Field Director, PTR; Y B Nagulwar, ACF; and Jayesh Tayade, RFO.
The postmortem was conducted by Dr Mayur Pawase, Veterinarian, WRTC, Nagpur; and Dr Sujit Kolangath. They also took the visceral sample for further examination. The team found no body parts of cubs were missing and no suspicious reason for the death was reported. Carcasses were disposed of as per the standard protocol. Further monitoring of the area is going on.
