Forest officials recovered the carcass of a 10-year-old male tiger at the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand on Sunday. The carcass, which seemed to be around 10 days old, was found near a drain in the Bijrani Range of the national park.
Wildlife activists have accused Corbett officials of negligence and questioned the reserve’s patrolling operations.
“The tiger carcass was lying near Savalde drain for 10 days and no one came to know about it. Such carelessness could have proved profitable for animal part smugglers,” said Rajendra Agarwal, state head of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), a Delhi-based NGO.
The tiger’s body parts were intact and a post-mortem carried out according to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) protocol confirmed it was a natural death. “The possibility of poaching has been ruled out,” CK Kavidayal, deputy director the reserve, told HT.