8.5.21

Madhya Pradesh: Tigress found dead in Balaghat irrigation canal


A sub-adult tigress was found under mysterious circumstances in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

All its body organs were intact and poaching attempt has been ruled out by the officials. Some however suspect it as a case of electrocution or poisoning on grounds that it had bleeding from mouth. Autopsy has been scheduled for Saturday.

Carcass of tigress was seen floating in Rajiv Gandhi irrigation canal near Waraseoni thehsil’s Khadagpur village (Ansira gram panchayat) which is roughly 20 kms away from the Maharashtra border, officials informed. They believe this tigress must have dispersed from Maharashtra’s Bhandara district. Villagers informed that flow of the canal was high on Wednesday, and therefore it would have floated from somewhere else. Tigress must have died on Thursday.

Carcass of tigress was seen in a canal near Khadagpur village

Poaching ruled out; tiger photo shared with Maha for identification

Unfortunately, the spot where this tigress was found and the stretch up to Sonewani forest area is all agricultural land. It was spotted by a passerby around 11 am and we came to know about it after two hours,” said an officer. Dog squads were sent to the area for search, but no clues were found, he said.

Its stripes could not be matched with any of the big cats in the data base available with Pench and Kanha tiger reserves, sources said. Pictures have been shared with Maharashtra and WII-Dehradun for further verification.

Environmentalist Ajay Dubey said, “Instead of taking care of the wildlife, forest department has shut down its offices in the name of Covid-19. Mismanagement is leading to continuous death of tigers. If this goes on, we won’t be a tiger state soon,” Dubey says.

WWF-India had been working on multiplying the tiger population in Balaghat for long- they call it a tiger recovery site or TX2 site. Target was to double up the number of tiger population in this region by 2020. Nothing much happened, say sources.

Balaghat tiger recovery site is situated in the biodiverse Maikal hills, comprising 963 km2 of forests. It is strategically located in the corridor regions connecting several source population sites, including Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh with protected areas of low tiger densities such as Achanakmar Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh and Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, says a report titled “The Balaghat Tx2 Recovery Site: Status of Tigers and Conservation Assessment (2014-2017)”. 

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