 "Tiger found dead, nails stolen in Uttarakhand forest; poachers suspected")
In a shocking incident, a five-year-old tiger was reportedly killed by poachers in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. The tiger’s nails were found missing, officials said on Friday, according to the report by news agency PTI.
Chief Forest Conservator of Kumaon Division, Dheeraj Pandey, shared that women from the forest panchayat area of Dhakna Badola in Champawat city discovered the tiger’s body in the forest on January 8.
When the forest department team reached the spot, they found that nails from two of the tiger’s paws had been removed. Initial investigations suggest that the tiger was not shot but may have been poisoned, pointing to the involvement of professional hunters, Pandey explained.
The tiger’s post-mortem has been completed, and viscera samples have been collected to ascertain the precise cause of death. These samples will be sent for detailed analysis to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Uttar Pradesh and the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun.
Enhanced surveillance ordered
Following this incident, Additional Chief Forest Conservator (Wildlife) Vivek Pandey has instructed all forest divisions in Uttarakhand to enhance surveillance in forest areas.
Uttarakhand’s Forest Minister, Subodh Uniyal, has taken serious note of the matter and directed forest officials to solve the case at the earliest. He also emphasised that if needed, the forest department should seek help from state police or intelligence agencies to catch the culprits.
India’s tiger population
According to the estimates of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), India is home to about 66 per cent of the world’s 5,574 adult wild tigers.
Also Read
According to the latest tiger count by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), announced on 29th July 2023, India is home to an estimated 3,682 tigers. This number could be as low as 3,167 or as high as 3,925. This is a significant increase from 2,226 tigers in 2014 and 1,706 in 2010.
‘The Status of Tigers in India 2022’ report groups tiger habitats into five main regions:
- Shivalik-Gangetic Plains
- Central Indian and Eastern Ghats
- Western Ghats
- North-Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains
- Sunderbans