This is the fifth recorded tiger death in Maharashtra in the present year.
After a controversial decision by the state forest department to hire a private hunter to shoot a problem tigress at Yavatmal in 2018, major lapses have surfaced in the physical capture of a tigress, who had a nylon snare around her neck. The tigress, who was weak and ailing, died soon after being tranquillised, but injured two people during the capture.
This is the fifth recorded tiger death in Maharashtra in the present year.
In September 2017, a tigress (T-4) in the Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary in Yavatmal was found with a snare around her neck. Forest department officials had tried to track her down for treatment. However, she was frequenting waterholes only at night, which made tranquillising tough.
The tigress was seen only until May 2018 and there were no subsequent sightings or camera trap captures. On Saturday, she was seen in camera traps in the sanctuary and on Sunday, sighted at a water body by a forest team. Forest officials said her movements were sluggish and the feline was unable to stand properly.
The around five-year-old tigress was darted with a tranquilliser gun at around 6:30pm and after she became unconscious, the feline was put in a cage in a rescue van. However, the tigress died later.
A source said the operation was undertaken by a largely inexperienced team, namely the driver of a forest official, tourist guides, and a veterinarian. "They shot a dart at her and missed, but the second found its mark. When the team was trying to trap her, the tigress attacked and one guide sustained injuries, which needed 17 stitches," the source said, adding that things could have been worse.
The postmortem revealed that the tigress, who seemed to be unable to hunt properly because of the nylon snare, and was hence weak, had maggots in the wound around her neck. "Her body had internal haemorrhages," he explained, adding that two tigers, including a male sub-adult which was radio-collared recently, had been found with nylon snares around their necks. The source questioned why the department had been unable to track the carnivore for around a year-and-half.
A forest department official said poachers often used such nylon and wire snares to hunt herbivores and the tigers had been trapped in them.
In November 2018, a problem tigress nicknamed Avni was shot by a private hunter hired by the state forest department at Yavatmal, leading to controversy. Three cubs were mowed down by a train in November at Chandrapur.
On March 6, a tigress was found dead in quicksand in the Pench tiger project. On March 3, the staff at the Melghat tiger reserve had found the dead body of a tigress, who was aged around 10 years. A female cub was found dead on January 3 in Pench and mortality of a male was recorded at Chikhaldara in Melghat on January 4.
In 2018, Maharashtra recorded 20 tiger mortalities, out of the 94 nationwide. In 2017, the number of tiger deaths in the state stood at 21 and the numbers were 15 in 2016, 12 in 2015, seven in 2014 and 10 in 2013.
According to the 2014 tiger census, India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. Maharashtra has around 190 such big cats, more than the figure of 169 in 2010. This increased to 203 in the phase-IV camera trapping exercise in 2014-15. Maharashtra has six tiger reserves, namely Tadoba Andhari, Pench, Bor, Sahyadri, Melghat and Navegaon Nagzira and a healthy number of tigers outside protected areas (PA) as well.
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