Bhubaneswar: The fact that the Royal Bengal Tiger, Mahavir was poached is bad enough. What is worse is that attempts have been made to conceal the factors behind its death and there has been no logical investigation into the incident.
Mahavir was poached in the Satkosia Sanctuary in Odisha’s Angul district in November this year.
In a letter to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Wildlife, and Chief Wildlife Warden, Odisha on December 11, Assistant Inspector General (AIG), National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Dr Vaishnav C. Mathur has said that it is evident from the field inspection report that the tiger died due to poaching.
NTCA has taken strong exception to the gross negligence of the State Forest and Environment Department in providing adequate safety to the Royal Bengal Tiger. He said that the State Forest and Environment Department should take immediate measures to step up anti-poaching operations and adopt an inclusive agenda through active community engagement to reduce human footprint in the core and the Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) over time.
He has also said that the NTCA will render all assistance and support to the Department to take forward the tiger augmentation project in Odisha in the right earnest.
Mahavir was brought from Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh on June 20 and kept in an enclosure at Raigoda on June 21. After observing his behaviour, forest officials had released him into the wild of Satkosia on July 6.
Apart from this, the letter also expressed concerned about the health of the Royal Bengal Tigress Sundari who is confined in the enclosure in Satkosia.
It may be recalled that following the death of the Bengal Tiger whose carcass was found inside Satkosia sanctuary on November 14, the Inspector General, NTCA had visited the Satkosia Tiger Reserve on November 16 and 17 and made a detailed circumstantial assessment of the prevailing situation. He had given the assessment report on the current status and related issues.
Later, on December 8, a report was submitted by the NTCA IG (Forest) Dr Amit Mallick and senior scientist Dr K. Ramesh of the WII to NTCA Director General Anup Nayak, stating the Bengal Tiger had not died after killing a porcupine whose spine was found in its stomach during the postmortem. The big cat had rather sustained a deep wound around its neck while trying to escape a trap laid by the poachers to catch wild boars. The tiger died due to multi-organ failure as the wound got infected and became a sepsis, the report added.
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