Bandipur's celebrity and the most photographed tiger, Prince is no more. The 14-year-old tiger's carcass was found on Sunday in the Kundakere Range of the National Park in Karnataka.
According to sources, the post-mortem conducted found that its stomach was empty, which indicated that the death could have been due to starvation. However, according to Forest Officials, all its body parts, including claws, were intact, which puts any foul play to rest.
“It was a 14 year old tiger that had lived most of its life and there were reports that it was limping and it could be a reason that it was not able to hunt. Also, Bandipur is facing the worst drought in decades and most of the prey are moving out, which obviously means that it did not have enough prey and could have succumbed to starvation,” said Bengaluru based Joseph Hoover, who is member of State Wildlife Advisory Board.
He added that fortunately the tiger did not go near any human habitation as there were no reports of cattle lifting, which could have led to a conflict situation.
Meanwhile, wildlife enthusiasts said that it was actually a good decision by the forest department to not get too attached to the celebrity status of Prince at Bandipur and provide it with 'feed' the way it did with Machali from Ranthambore in Rajasthan. “Bandipur has the highest density of tigers and a 14 year old tiger dying naturally is actually a good news as now another tiger can take over the territory,” he said.
Wildlife photographers remembered that massive sized Prince as the favourite of photographers as he would freely roam his territory and did not shy away from tourists and photographers.
