TIGRESS DIES OF INFECTION CAUSED BY RADIO COLLAR

KOLKATA: A Sunderbans tigress, treated for her illness for more than a year and radio-collared before being released in the wild just seven months ago, was found dead on Tuesday.

“We found the skeleton inside the jungle on Tuesday morning after a search operation for nearly four days. A team of veterinary surgeons confirmed that the tigress died of an infection caused by the collar,” said S Dasgupta, director of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve.

With this death, two tigresses that created milestones in the history of tiger conservation in the country died of infection caused by radio collars.

Just six months ago, T4, a tigress that was raised in captivity but later relocated to the wild, died of a similar infection at Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

It was in early 2013 that the three-and-a-half-year old limping Sunderban tigress was taken to Sajnekhali for treatment. After a year-and-a-half, the tigress was released in the wild in 2014 with a radio-collar so that she could be tracked.

However, in the last month, the signal showed that the animal was not moving at all.

“Initially we thought it had given birth and confined itself. We also thought the collar may have fallen off. But then we launched a search operation,” said a senior official.

Dasgupta said, “A team of at least 20 officials reached the spot on Tuesday morning where they found the skeleton with the patch of skin still stuck to the collar.”