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Two radio-collared tigers found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve
The state forest department and WII planned to fit radio collars to study the behaviour of 14 tigers living outside the reserve’s core zone of about 15,000 sq km - the Panna landscape
Two of the three tigers who were radio-collared in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve and helped understand an unknown aspect of feline behaviour - the brotherhood of inseparable cubs Heera and Panna in July - died this month, officials said on Friday.
“One-year-old Heera was killed by villagers in Satna [on November 1] and he was fitted with a radio collar in January this year,” said an official, who did not wish to be named.
Another three-year-old tigress was found dead in the reserve’s Rampur buffer zone on Wednesday. The two were part of a study being conducted in collaboration with Dehradun’s Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
The state forest department and WII planned to fit radio collars to study the behaviour of 14 tigers living outside the reserve’s core zone of about 15,000 sq km--the Panna landscape. The collars were first fitted on the three tigers.
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“In the study, aspects such as sharing food and water and spending time with each other came out. The real study of the journey started in July when the tiger moved to the landscape in search of his territory. But before it could reveal more details, his skinned carcass was found at hillock of Satna,” said the official.
The official said the study related to the movement of the tiger, the distance the animal covers in a day, how it searches the prey, finds out whether it is a safer place or not, the reason for staying at a particular place for some days and for moving ahead. “All this has gone in vain with the death of the tigers.”
The three-year-old tigress was fitted with a radio collar in February as she was moving in the buffer zone already home to two tigresses. “The tigress did not move much in the past 10 months,” the official said.
“Losing two tigers is painful and their death has interrupted our study going on for the past 10-11 months to know about how tigers move and the selection of their territories. The study would have provided us insight into their behaviour in areas having the human presence.”
Forest officials said the tigress died of some internal injuries. “Prima facie, the cause of death appears to be natural due to an injury near her neck. All the body parts were found intact and there were no injury marks suggesting a territorial fight,” said UK Sharma, field director, Panna Tiger Reserve.
Principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) Alok Kumar said the deaths have affected the study. “But now, the collars will be fitted on other tigers,”
Sharma said the Centre and WII choose the reserve for the study after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) included it in the Man and Biosphere programme.
The reserve has undergone substantial ecosystem restoration in the buffer zone. The Unesco included it in the programme for creating a conducive environment to reintroduce tigers and making people aware of them to reduce human-animal conflict.
In 2008, the reserve lost all its tigers. The forest department reintroduced a male and a female tiger in 2009. The tiger population in Panna has since increased to over 56, according to forest department officials.
