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Forest official booked for tigress death near Corbett Tiger Reserve
The Corbett Tiger Reserve administration admitted that the tigress, believed to be 8 to 10 years old, which was found dead in the Marchula market area in the buffer zone of the wildlife sanctuary on Monday night, was killed in the firing by a forest official.
A forest official has been booked in connection with the killing of a tigress near the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand’s Almora district, officials familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
The Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) administration admitted that the tigress, believed to be 8 to 10 years old, which was found dead in the Marchula market area in the buffer zone of the wildlife sanctuary on Monday night, was killed in the firing by a forest official.
Dheeraj Singh, a forest guard of CTR’s Mandal range, had fired two rounds from a 12-bore gun to scare away the animal, but one of the bullets hit the big cat in its right thigh, said CTR director Dheeraj Pandey.
“The tigress had turned violent and was a threat to the life of locals in the densely populated area,” he told reporters. “A forest official had initially fired nine rounds in the air using a 315-bore service rifle to scare away the animal towards the forest area, but it tried to enter the houses and shops repeatedly.”
When asked if the animal was involved in any attack on a human being, Pandey replied in the negative.
“Several people were standing on the terrace of their houses and it was unsafe for the forest team to fire more shots into the air. To ensure the safety of human lives and scare the animal from the populated area, the forest official fired two rounds on the ground but pellets of one of the bullets hit the animal in its right thigh, leading to its death,” Pandey said when asked as to why did the forest team open fire on the animal.
Forest guard Dheeraj Singh has been booked under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, said the CTR director.Singh has been attached to the Plain Range Office in Sendhikhal under Uttarakhand’s Kalagarh Tiger Reserve.
The tigress had entered the Marchula market area in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve around 9.15 pm on Monday. After receiving an alert, a forest department’s team of Mandal range reached the area and tried to scare away the big cat, officials said. The forest department was on alert and had increased patrolling in the area after repeated sighting of the big cat in the past few days, a senior forest official said.
The post-mortem examination of the tigress, conducted on Tuesday by a team of veterinary doctors, also confirmed that the big cat died of bullet injuries resulting in excessive bleeding.
A 10-cm-long porcupine quill was also found penetrated in the animal’s liver and it had damaged the organ badly, the report said. The stomach and intestine of the animal were empty and the lungs were also damaged, it added.
The death of the tigress had triggered a blame-game between government officials and local villagers on Tuesday. While the forest department claimed that villagers might have killed the tigress fearing getting attacked by it, local residents claimed that the vehicle used by people who allegedly shot dead the big cat resembled a forest department jeep.
A video purportedly showing two shots being fired from a vehicle at the tigress in the Marchula market area was widely circulated on social media on Tuesday. The incident triggered an outrage on social media, with several people and animal lovers condemning the act while asking why the forest department did not make efforts to rather tranquilise the animal.
The 14-second video purportedly showed a white four-wheeler with the barrel of a long gun coming out of its window and pointing toward the tigress. The tigress charged toward the vehicle before two shots were fired at the animal amid shouts of “maaro, maaro” (kill, kill) in the background, the purported video showed. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the video.
Condemning the act, Ramnagar-based wildlife activist AG Ansari said, “It is an unthinkable act and first such incident in Corbett landscape. We can clearly see in the video of the incident that the barrel of the gun was pointed towards the animal.”
“They could have used quick reaction team and made more attempts to tranquilise the tiger. No senior official, even ranger, was there and it could have been avoided,” Ansari added.
