The tiger that mauled a girl and a beat ranger before it was tranquillized and captured in Kantamari village of Kultali on Sunday, died mysteriously at Bonny Camp late on Tuesday evening. Hit by two tranquillizer darts, it had been in a daze for around 55 hours, leading experts to suspect that it might have succumbed to an overdose of sedatives. Two months ago, the discovery of a tiger carcass had led to a controversy, a CBI inquiry and the transfer of several top forest officials. The death of another tiger — that too in the forest department’s custody — has come as a huge shock. This tiger was supposed to have been released in the Sunderbans on Monday but forest officials kept postponing it, apparently because the animal was still drowsy. A team of veterinarians tried desperately to revive it but their efforts failed. At 8.30 pm on Tuesday, the eight-feet-long tiger breathed its last. In the face of strong criticism, forest officials claimed the animal was “old” and may have been suffering from septicemia. “It had a bleeding injury on one its paws. We tried antibiotics but unfortunately, it didn’t work,” said Atanu Raha, principal chief conservator of forests, ruling out the possibility of a tranquillizer overdose. But sources said a life-saving step may have been ignored in the panic and confusion of the capture. The tiger had been shot twice because the first dart did not seem to have any effect. “The catamine hydrochloride shots were perhaps not followed by the mandatory valium shot. It might have proved fatal,” said a source.
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