Dead tiger not from state; from where then?

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT 

Bengaluru: The recovery of the carcass of a tiger under a bridge in Gubbi taluk of Tumakuru district has gotten murkier following reports that the stripes of the dead tiger do not match with those of Karnataka. This has given room to suspicion whether some miscreants killed the big cat somewhere else and dumped it under the bridge.

Forest department officials were surprised when they received information about the presence of a tiger's carcass under a bridge near Ankasandra Forest in Gubbi taluk as the area has not recorded movement of tigers in the past. Secondly, caves in the vicinity have other wild animals like leopards but not tigers.

So, they were perplexed to see the carcass of the big cat in their jurisdiction. It is said that the tiger that was found in Gubbi taluk does not belong to the Karnataka tiger reserve in the area. The stripes of the dead tiger that was sent to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) reportedly indicated that the tiger was not from Karnataka but from elsewhere.

The Authority keeps a record of every tiger trapped on cameras installed inside forests during the tiger census held once in four years. The dead tiger was said to be six to seven years old, and has intrigued the department staff. As of now, the Forest department believes that the tiger was not from the Karnataka forests, and are trying to find its origin.

Earlier, Forest department personnel opined that the tiger may have come from Bhadra Tiger Reserve via Birur-Kadur-Hosadurga-Chikkanayakanahalli Tirtharampura or from Bannerghatta National Park via the Ramanagar and Magadi route. For confirmation, the picture of the tiger’s stripes was sent to the NCTA even though it said the tiger does not belong to any tiger reserve such as Bhadra, Bandirpur, Nagahole or BRT.

According to sources, the body part of the tiger has been sent to the FSL to find out the reason for its death. It was 2.6 metres long and around 7 years old. No external injuries were found on its body and no sign of internal bleeding either. It may have died after consuming some poisoned food, got electrocuted, was bitten by a snake, or was a victim of a hit-and-run case.

Postmortem was conducted on the carcass to ascertain the cause of its death. It is mandatory for states to find out the cause of a tiger death and inform the NTCA, which keeps an account of births and deaths of the protected animal across the country. The cause of death of this particular tiger, though, is still a mystery