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Radio-collar infection kills tigress in MP


The first tigress in India to be translocated to the wild after being hand-bred was on Friday found dead of an infection caused by its radio collar at the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. T4 had earlier being showcased as the biggest success story of a big-cat breeding experiment.

"It seems the radio-collar caused infection around her neck," MP's chief wildlife warden Narendra Kumar told. "Rigor mortis set in around the maggot-infested wounds. This is the second incident of collar-related infection. In the first case, we had prior information and timely action was taken to remove the collar. 

This time, the wound was spotted only during autopsy."The tiger reserve's staff received 'mortality signals' (signals from a constant location) from T4 at 6.45 pm on Thursday. 

On Friday, it was found dead near Mandla range in the Panna reserve, said officials.Hand-reared after being rescued when two weeks old from the Kanha Tiger Reserve, T4 was released in Panna in 2009. 

She had three litters in the wild. T4's translocation and breeding at Panna had created a new chapter in tiger conservation history.T4 and her two siblings were orphaned when their mother was killed at Kanha. Park officials picked up the litter and hand-reared the cubs with the plan to reintroduce them into the wild. T4 was the first among them to be chosen for the experiment.

After being released in Panna, T4 had struggled in the initial months. Another tiger, T3, had helped her to hunt in the wild.In 2009, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) had criticized a 'wildlife intelligence report' that claimed radio-collaring had caused the deaths of tigers in the Panna National Park.

The report had said radio-collaring hampered natural movement, caused neck infections and was used by poachers to track tigers. Asad Rahmani, the then BNHS director, had told reporters that radio-collaring was an efficient method that had been in use for over 40 years


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