A half eaten boar was found in the jungle, at a distance from where the body of the tiger was recovered.
After eluding forest officers and villagers for one and a half months, the Royal Bengal tiger was finally found dead on Friday at Lalgarh in Jhargram district of West Bengal.
The carcass of the tiger – a full grown male – was found at Madhupur forest. It was found out that a hunting festival is on at the area and over 50 tribals entered the jungle and killed the tiger after it injured two area locals – Babul and Badal – on Friday morning.
A half eaten boar was found in the jungle, at a distance from where the body of the tiger was recovered. As the body of the tiger was being taken for a post mortem, officials said that it was suspected that the boar had been killed, laced with poison and used as a bait to catch the tiger. Forest department officials said external injury on the eyes, head and body have been spotted.
“The cause of death will be clearer after a post mortem. Two injuries have been found on the tiger. Looks like a sharp object had been used to attack the tiger. An FIR will be lodged at Lalgarh Police Station and a case will be started at Midnapore court,” said Ravi Kant Sinha, principal chief conservator of forest, wildlife and chief wildlife warden, West Bengal.
State forest minister Binoy Krishna Burman said that a detailed report of the incident had been sought to find out if there had been any negligence.
IG (wildlife) Soumitra Dasgupta said that in spite of several technological intervention the department could not catch the tiger alive. “What happened is extremely unfortunate. It needs to be investigated,” he said.
Villagers, who had spent the last few weeks in fear were seen in a festive mood as they clicked selfies with the dead body of the tiger.
The tiger was first spotted on March 2 and then on several occasions it was spotted at different places of the district. It had preyed on cattle and a sense of fear surged among locals of the district.
On March 8, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suggested the use of drones to locate the tiger. Experts from Sunderbans were brought in and pictures of the tiger were even caught on trap cameras set up at different places.
On March 13, a forest guard Damodar Murmu and a driver Amal Chakraborty who had been hired to catch the tiger had suffocated to death in a mini-truck van in which they had put up at the forest in Hamalgora area of the district. Two cages were also put up to catch the tiger.
On March 30, it had been cornered in a culvert by a few villagers but it tore the net and which was laid and escaped after hurting two villagers.
It has been assumed that the tiger had been strayed from Simlipal tiger reserve in Odisha.
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 "Man-animal conflict: Tiger found dead in West Bengal, forest department to lodge FIR")
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