The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an inquiry after the autopsy report of an adult tiger, the decomposed body of which was found in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) on Wednesday, failed to establish the cause of its death.
Chief conservator, Bareilly zone, Lalit Verma has set up a two-member panel comprising conservator of Bareilly circle, Javed Akhtar and divisional forest officer of Bareilly, Bharat Lal, to probe the matter and submit a report within a week.
Meanwhile, field director of PTR, H. Rajamohan has suspended two forest staff members for laxity.
The autopsy was conducted in Bareilly’s Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) by veterinary officer Dr Abhijeet M Pawde, and Dr Rajul Saxena, a government veterinary officer posted in Pilibhit.
A representative each of National Tiger Conservation Authority, Dr Daksh Gangwar, and of chief wildlife warden of UP Naresh Kumar was present at the time of the autopsy besides PTR’s field director.
The panel has preserved the samples of the tiger’s bone marrow for further examination.
Samples of internal organs or muscles could not be collected as maggots and scavengers had virtually devoured the flesh. Even the bone marrow had dried up.
{{/usCountry}}Samples of internal organs or muscles could not be collected as maggots and scavengers had virtually devoured the flesh. Even the bone marrow had dried up.
{{/usCountry}}None of the tiger’s bones was found to be fractured but one of its canines was loose.
In the last census, PTR had just over 50 tigers. A couple of weeks ago, an adult tiger, which was attacked and injured by villagers in Pilibhit, died during a botched rescue attempt by forest department officials.