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[Sanju]

Tiger Found Dead in Gujarat is the One Caught on Cam: Forest Dept

The Gujarat forest department on Wednesday, 27 February, confirmed that the tiger found dead in Mahisagar district on Tuesday, 26 February was the same that was captured on camera around two weeks back – the first sighting of a tiger in the state in three decades.

The department, however, ruled out poaching as the cause of the tiger's death. The carcass of the tiger was found on Tuesday at Kantar village in the forest area of Mahisagar district.

Quote:The animal was found dead around 15 kms from the spot, where it was last captured on camera. Based on the examination of the carcass, the forest department ruled out the possibility of poaching, a senior forest department official said. The official said samples of the tiger carcass have been sent to three laboratories to ascertain the cause of the death as no external injury marks were found on it.

According to the official, the pattern of the tiger's stripes led the post-mortem panel, formed to probe its death, to conclude that it was the same animal that was captured on the camera trap around two weeks back.

Quote:“During the examination, no physical injury was noticed on the tiger. Also, all the 18 claws, 4 canine teeth, genital organ and skin were found to be intact, hence this is definitely not a case of poaching.”
S K Srivastava, Chief Conservator of Forests, Vadodara,

Quote:Only two weeks ago, the state government had confirmed the presence of a tiger in Gujarat. The animal was spotted in the state after a gap of nearly three decades.

Srivastava said the exact cause of its death is yet to be ascertained as no external injury was found on the animal. "We have collected three sets of samples for investigation, which will be sent to Gujarat Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Gandhinagar, Anand Veterinary Hospital and LaCONES in Hyderabad for examination," he said.

The post-mortem panel comprises senior forest department officials, a representative of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NCTA), veterinary doctors, and district representative of the Animal Welfare Board of India, Srivastava said.

"The carcass was burnt as per the protocol of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in the presence of a panel, villagers and mediapersons," he added.

Not poached, tests on to find out if tiger was poisoned
@Rishi and @Lycaon

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The post-mortem of a tiger found dead on Tuesday ruled out poaching as the cause of death, after a seven-member panel that examined the carcass said the big cat carried no physical injuries. Further tests are on to ascertain whether the tiger was poisoned, as forest officials have not ruled out the possibility that farmers could have done it protect their farms.

However, the major organs of the big cat had degenerated by the time the carcass was found 72 hours after the animal died, said NTCA representative Dr Pratyush Patankar.

Quote:“Pathological and toxicology analysis is awaited to rule out the possibility of poisoning,” he added. He also ruled out starvation as the cause of death.

The forest officials are looking into the possibility that the tiger was fed on a carcass of a pig poisoned by the farmers to protect their farms.

However, Chief Conservator of Forests SK Srivastava said the locals had been thrilled about the presence of the wild cat in their area. “The villagers were very sad with the death of the tiger too,” he said.

It had been determined that the dead tiger was the same animal captured on camera from its stripe patterns, an official said. No tiger has been sighted in this area in the past six months and no animal has been killed in that period, he added.

It was the same tiger that went missing from Ujjain and was expected to be journeying back home.

Gujarat: Forest department still clueless about what killed tiger

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Mangla Bavo

Nicknamed Mangla Bavo, this was the first tiger sighted in the state in 30 years

A day after a tiger was found dead in the forest of Kantar Village in Mahisagar, the forest department is still clueless about what killed the wild cat. The tiger, nicknamed Mangla Bavo for its propensity to not settle anywhere.

Another official in the know said in all probability, the animal died due to something it ate. It should be noted that since the news of its death, it has been suspected that the animal could have been poisoned.

"The jungles where he was found has cobras and Russell Vipers (just found funny, every Indian jungles has the BIG 4 at least those 2). It is also possible that the animal was bitten by a poisonous snake. But so far, it seems it could be something that he ate," said the official.

However, he added that no major kills were reported in the area a day or two before the tiger's body was found. "We did not find any carcasses nor did locals report a missing animal," said the official.

Quote:An expert, who had also been following the tiger's presence in Gujarat, rubbished the 'bitten by snake' theory. "You only need to take a look at the tiger deaths across India and the cause to know how improbable this angle is," said the expert.

The postmortem panel comprises senior forest department officials, a representative of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NCTA), veterinary doctors, and district representative of the Animal Welfare Board of India, Srivastava said.

Lioness found dead
Dead body of a lioness, aged around 10 to 11 years, was found in Tulsishyam range of Gir East division on Wednesday, the state's forest department said. The dead body was found inside the protected area. They said that nails of the lioness were found to be intact, and nothing suspicious was noticed. The postmortem would be conducted as per the due procedure, they added. The lioness' body was found two days after a male lion was found dead in Jasadhar range of Gir East. The state government said in the assembly last week that 204 lions and cubs had died, majority of them due to natural causes, in 2017 and 2018.

Tiger autopsy rules out poaching, snakebite likely

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An autopsy was conducted by a panel of doctors in the presence of officials and representatives of various organisations on Wednesday morning according to NTCA guidelines.

Apart from forest department staff and veterinary officers from Mahisagar, Dr Pratyush Patankar, a representative of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA); GEER Foundation veterinary doctor Dr Aniket Patel; and Prateek Lakdawala, a representative of the Animal Welfare Board of India were present during the post mortem. The chief conservator of forests, Vadodara, S K Srivastava, said that during the examination no physical injury was noticed on the carcass.

Srivastava further said, “The possibility of it being given a poisoned kill by locals is not likely, as there was no discontent among people of the state about the tiger killing livestock. The possibility of snakebite cannot be ruled out.”

Sources said that the carcass was badly decomposed. “Only histopathology and toxicology reports can now ascertain what led to its death,” said an expert present at the site.

Forest officials said they are also looking into the possibility that a nilgai or a wild boar

Gujarat TIGER PROBE (CORRECTED)

"The tiger that was found dead in Gujarat, had reached Mahisagar district after crossing Indore, Ujjain, Dewas and Jhabua districts of Madhya Pradesh," an MP Public Relations Department official said, quoting the state forest department authorities. The tiger had traversed from Ratapani sanctuary situated near Bhopal, he said.

After getting the information that the tiger had entered Gujarat, MP's Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) U Prakasham had written a letter to the Gujarat Forest Department on February 14, urging it to protect the animal and keep a tab on its movements.

Quote:Gujarat is expert in branding any unnatural wildlife death in name of "death due to snake-bite" to make it appear as "Natural"...
I was of view that only Asiatic Lions were stupid to get bitten often by venomous snakes, but Gujarat proved that Tigers are not smarter... said Jaidev Dhadhal

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I bet, all these sake bite cases are side tracking coz big cats (particularly tiger) are not blind and lethargic to get bitten all the time. I know they may get bitten really if not aware but that occurs very rarely. If in autopsy of  histopathology and toxicology test reports poison presence is confirmed then it might be the poison that is given by villagers not venom by snake. Reply