A tiger was found dead under suspicious circumstances with its carcass hanging from a tree in a clutch-wire trap near the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, a forest official said on Wednesday.
The clutch wire (found in vehicles) is generally used by poachers to trap animals, the official said, adding they suspect a trap was laid for some other animal and the tiger got trapped in it. Forest officials on Tuesday night got information that a tiger carcass was found hanging from a tree in Tilgua beat's compartment no. 460 in the north forest division near the Panna Tiger Reserve following which a team of forest personnel reached the spot, he said.
It is a mystery how the heavy tiger, about two years old, got trapped in the wire and hung from a tree, the official said.“We are probing how and under what circumstances the tiger was killed. We have also taken the samples and veterinarians have conducted the autopsy to find out the cause of the death,” Chattarpur range's forest conservator Sanjeev Jha said.
A dog squad was also pressed into service as part of the probe into the feline's death, the official said. Forest officials appealed to locals to share any information they have related to the tiger's death. Madhya Pradesh has six tiger reserves, namely Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Satpura, Panna and Sanjay Dubri.
(With PTI inputs)
