Male tiger carcass found in UP’s Sitapur
The carcass of a male tiger was found in the forest area of the Machreta block, under the Madhwapur forest block, in Sitapur district, on Tuesday evening
The carcass of a male tiger was found in the forest area of the Machreta block, under the Madhwapur forest block, in Sitapur district, on Tuesday evening. A post-mortem examination identified chronic ailment as the cause of death.
“The carcass was of a full-grown tiger aged between 9-10-years. There were no external injury marks found. We formed a panel and the post-mortem examination was conducted,” said divisional forest officer Sitapur, Naveen Khandelwal, on Wednesday.
The post-mortem examination found all organs of the wild cat were in place including claws, and teeth. The animal did not suffer any cut on the skin, and muscles were in good condition, said Khandelwal.
“However the kidney and liver were damaged, which indicated the wild cat suffered from some chronic disease for the past few days or weeks. The stomach was found empty and apparently it had not eaten anything for the past 4-5 days, which ruled out the possibility of poisoning,” said the DFO.
The body of the tiger was spotted first by a local villager who had gone to pick some dry wood at around 5 pm. He found the body of hte tiger between shrubs, lying on one side, covered with leaves. The news spread and a large number of villagers reached the spot. Villagers said the tiger was spotted moving in the area for the past few days, particularly in villages such as Maholi and Kamlapur.
“Our staff conducted patrolling immediately in the vicinity but nothing significant was found. We searched the area to check if there were any poaching attempts,” said Khandelwal.
The search was done to check if there was any other animal carcass or presence of another tiger to confirm the death could be a result of a fight between two tigers.
e Uttar Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) inducted nearly 10,000 buses to ferry passengers from different parts of the state to the Mahakumbh and back within the last couple of weeks.
However, if the SRTC is to be believed, most of the fleet is on standby because there is a shortage of passengers.
Then who are these people choking all roads leading to Mahakumbh Nagar? Supposedly, people are preferring to travel on their own or take private forms of transport, rather than make use of the SRTC buses.
“The 8,500 buses, and then the more recent 1,200, were all scheduled to be inducted into the state bus fleet during this period, with the expectation that we will see a flood of passengers to the Mahakumbh,” said managing director, UPSRTC, Masoom Ali Sarwar.
Transport minister Dayashnakar Singh had announced on Tuesday that 1,200 buses will be allotted to Prayagraj, to accommodate passengers for Maghi Purnima.
“Although all the buses are being acquired by the UPSRTC during Mahakumbh, the fact is that not many of them are being used for Mahakumbh purposes,” said the MD, adding that going by the present crowds opting for bus transport, the initial 7,000 buses allotted to Mahakumbh duty would have been enough to bear the load of passengers till the end of the festival.
Spokesperson of UPSRTC, Amarnath Sahai said, “The new buses are all being added to the fleet as planned, but as it turns out, we do not require them. Only a few hundred buses are travelling in and out of the district daily. On the day of Maghi Purnima, till late afternoon, only 200 buses had entered Prayagraj from other districts of UP.”
Along with these thousands of buses, first 350, and then another 400 shuttle buses were launched on the roads of Prayagraj, as well as double decker bus services from major cities. “All in the expectation of an overflow of passengers,” said Ankur Vikas, general manager, operations, UPSRTC, Prayagraj.
These buses getting added to the fleet in the past weeks were originally meant to replace almost 50% of the state fleet buses, which were going to expire, or cross their fitness age by 2024-25. After Mahakumbh, these buses will be duly allocated to depots across the state, especially with the new wave of recruitment for drivers and conductors that the UPSRTC has recently undertaken. The new fleet will be on-roaded, complete with panic buttons and app-tracking facilities.