NAGPUR: One more sub-adult tigress was found dead in Saoli forest range in
Chandrapur
district on Monday, a day after a tiger carcass was found in a farm well in Bramhapuri forest division. Maharashtra has lost 53 tigers from January 1 to December 25, 2023 — one tiger death every week on an average.
With 203 tiger deaths in 2023, this is the highest tiger death toll nationally with Maharashtra leading the tally with 53, of which Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts account for 26.
The state has reported 59 human deaths and 522 injuries from wildlife, official sources said.
Tigress’ death due to road hit, not poaching, says Chandrapur DFO
Chandrapur divisional forest officer (DFO) Prashant Khade attributed the subadult tigress’s death due to road hit. “There were injuries to its neck and internal haemorrhage in skull. Poaching is ruled out as all body parts including claws, whiskers, and canines were intact.”
The carcass was found around 100 metres from the Gosikhurd canal near the Sonapur reserve forest on an encroached farmland by one Lomesh Deotale. “The spot where the carcass was found is close to the river from which has regular movement of sand-laden trucks at night,” sources in the forest department told TOI.
Sources said the carcass was at least three days old as maggots had infested the skull. The post-mortem of the Saoli tiger was conducted as per the protocol at the Transit Treatment Centre (TTC), Chandrapur, in the presence of veterinarians, Dr Ravikant Khobragade and Dr Kundan Podshelwar, PCCF (wildlife) and NTCA representatives Bandu Dhotre and Mukesh Bhandakkar.
Dhotre blamed the diversion of prime forest areas and tiger habitats for mining, canals, industries, airports, and other developmental projects for the high tiger casualties. “Chandrapur is a tiger district, and the government is expected to save big cat corridors. There is also an urgent need to implement the solar fencing scheme announced this year which appears to have remained a nonstarter,” Dhotre said. According to Gadchiroli honorary wildlife warden Uday Patel, “Chandrapur has the ignominy for worsening man-animal conflict. Along with humans, tigers are a huge casualty. Ghodazari and Kanhargaon sanctuaries were created to accommodate growing tiger numbers but these sanctuaries remain unmanned due to lack of staff.”
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