In more bad news for tigers and animal lovers in Maharashtra, the state lost yet another tiger. The big cat was killed by another carnivore in the buffer zone of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. (TATR).
This has taken the number of tiger mortalities in Maharashtra this year to 15, which is at par with the highest toll recorded.
State forest department officials said that forest department staff, who were visiting the Janala village in Chandrapur after a farmer's cow was killed by a tiger, had chanced upon the carcass of the slain big cat on Wednesday.
"The tiger may have been killed in a fight with another tiger. The slain tiger was aged around one-and-half years," said an official. The tail and a rear leg of the killed tiger was severed from his body during the fight and some part of the body was also eaten by wild animals making it difficult to identify the gender.
"The other tiger too may have been injured badly in the fight as we heard it cry out in pain at a distance," the official added.
In 2016, India lost 98 tigers--the highest since 2010 and this year, the toll stands at 79.
In 2016, Maharashtra accounted for 15 mortalities--the highest so far. In 2015, Maharashtra’s tiger deaths stood at 12, up from seven in 2014 and 10 in 2013. Tiger mortalities were 13 in 2012 and four each in 2011 and 2010. As on November 17 this year, the tiger deaths in Maharashtra are 15.
Since November 4, 2016, a total of six tigers have been electrocuted in the state. This includes Srinivas, the son of Maharashtra’s iconic tiger Jai, who was electrocuted to death in the Nagbhid range in April.
Maharashtra has six tiger reserves, namely Tadoba Andhari, Pench, Bor, Sahyadri, Melghat and Navegaon Nagzira. According to the tiger census, results for which were released in 2014, India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. The state has around 190 such big cats, more than the figure of 169 in 2010.
