Two persons were arrested for allegedly poisoning a tiger at Gohri range of Rajaji National Park on February 7, a senior park official today said.
Ghani and Saddam Hussain, who belong to the forest dwelling Gujjar community, were arrested from Gohri range of the park last evening by a combined team of SOG and wildlife personnel, Rajaji National Park Deputy Director H K Singh said.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that they had poisoned the tiger after two buffaloes belonging to the community were killed by the big cat, he said.
The carcass of a four-year-old tiger and a pig had been recovered by a patrol team of wildlife personnel at the Rajaji National Park on February 7.
As the limbs of the tiger including its nails and teeth were intact, park authorities had suspected that it had been poisoned to death as the mutilated body of a pig was also found lying about 600 metres away from where the carcass of the tiger had been found.
It was suspected that the tiger died after preying on the pig which was poisoned.
Indian Veterinary Research Institute Bareilly later confirmed that traces of a poison named Organo Chlorine were found in the viscera of the tiger as well as the pig it had partially eaten, Singh said.
Ghani and Husaain had allegedly sprayed the poison on the body of the pig, the tiger's prey causing its death, he said.
Out of the nine tigers at the park, it was the only one with reproductive powers with the rest of them being either too young or too old to procreate, park authorities said.
