Tiger 'Kingfisher' found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve; toll reaches 23 since Jan

A tiger, popularly known as 'Kingfisher', was found dead in core area of Kanha Tiger Reserve, taking the death toll of big cats in Madhya Pradesh in the last 10 months to 23, KTR officials said on Saturday.

Twenty-two deaths of tigers, three due to poisoning in the core area of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) on March 28, one each due to electrocution in the wild of Chhindwara and KTR were reported on January 22 and October 22 respectively, have been reported by National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) website site. Yesterday's death at the KTR is yet to be reported by the NTCA. This is second of death of tiger at the KTR in the last one week. One death was reported there on October 22. "The tiger, aged around 6, was found dead in the Mukki range in core area of the park on Friday. The postmortem report of the striped animal revealed that it died due to infighting over territory with another big cat," KTR field director Sanjay Shukla told PTI.

"We have recently arrested poachers who killed the tiger which was found dead on October 22," he added. A maximum number of nine tigers have died in the KTR followed by eight in Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in last 10 months in the state. Shukla contended that majority of tigers in the KTR have died due to natural deaths. The first tiger death was reported from PTR's buffer zone on January 2 this year.