Nagpur: Back to back three tiger deaths in just one week in Maharashtra has raised questions over wildlife conservation in forest areas of the State. In the recent incident, a 6month old tiger cub was found dead in Compartment No 489 of South Junewani Beat, in Territorial forest area of Deolapar Forest Range under Nagpur Division on Wednesday evening. After getting the information, a Forest team rushed to the spot and conducted panchanama of the partially decomposed carcass of the cub. Due to darkness, the team decided to perform the post-mortem on Thursday morning.
Preliminary investigation by the foresters revealed that the death took place due to starvation. According to sources, a tigress abandoned three of its cubs in the Deolapar forest area of which one cub was traced by the Forest Department. At present, the cub is under observation. The carcass found on Wednesday evening has been of the second cub of the same tigress. The first cub found two-three days ago was starving when rescued. However, Forest teams are searching for the third cub which is still untraceable, added sources. The body parts of the cub are intact and there is no sign of poisoning.
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Thursday 09 Jan. 2025
The Forest team is predicting that the death took place 2-3 days ago as the carcass was half decomposed. However, the exact reason of the death will be revealed after the autopsy of the carcass. Maharashtra witnessed the lowest mortality of tigers in 2024 as compared to previous five years. There were 22 tiger deaths last year, which was less than half as compared to 2023. In 2023, 46 tigers died in Maharashtra, highest in a decade. All the 22 tiger deaths last year took place in Vidarbha region. Year 2025 commenced on a bad note as three tigers died in the very first week of the year.
The first tiger death was reported in Sindewahi Forest Range under the Bramhapuri Forest Division. It was a male tiger and it was reported on January 2. The second incident took place on January 6 at Pachra Beat of Tumsar Range, which comes under Bhandara Forest Division. The panchnama of this third incident was carried out under the supervision of Dr Bharat Singh Hada, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Nagpur.
The panchanama took place as per the SOP of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and representatives of NTCA and PCCF (Wildlife) were also present along with veterinarians and forest staff.
T-10 tiger rescued from Lakhandur
The tiger T-10 tiger was rescued from the forest near Tai (Bu) village in Lakhandur tehsil of Bhandara on Wednesday morning. The two-and-a-half-year-old tiger was spotted by villagers around 6 am and some people threw stones at it to drive the animal away. Fortunately, someone intimated the Forest and Rapid Rescue team as well and the tiger was rescued around 12.15 pm. A forest official informed that the big cat had probably made a kill and was relaxing after that.
As per details, the T-10 tiger has been regularly spotted in various forest areas near Lakhni, Adyal and Lakhandur tehsils in the last few months. A few days ago, the said tiger was seen in the forest near Hardauli in Lakhni tehsil. On Wednesday, the tiger was spotted in the forest near Tai (Bu) village in the morning. Soon, people of the area gathered to catch a glimpse of the big cat. They even pelted stones to scare away the tiger.
