FIR against six, Dudhwa tigress was ‘mutilated’ even after death
A first information report (FIR) was lodged against six people by name and several unidentified people in connection with the killing of a tigress, which was beaten and crushed under a tractor in Kishanpur sanctuary of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on Sunday evening, DTR field director Ramesh Pandey said on Monday.
Pandey also said an autopsy revealed that villagers inflicted injuries on the big cat before and after its death. They also tried to pull out its nails and canine teeth, he said and ruled out the tigress having been a maneater.
He said stern action will be taken against those who killed the tigress in the core zone of the tiger reserve. The core zone is the area of a reserve conserved solely for tigers with no human intervention.
Inspector Atar Singh confirmed the FIR was lodged at Sehramu in Pilibhit against Bablu, Mukesh, Lal Bahadur, Chauthi, Subhash and Omprakash and several unidentified people. All those booked by name are residents of Chaltua village in Pilibhit near which the incident occurred. Chaltua village is part of the Kishanpur sanctuary.
The inspector also said the FIR was lodged under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (armed with deadly weapon), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to public servant), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 427 (mischief), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and Sections 9/27/31/51(1) of the Wild Life Protection Act.
The tigress, estimated to be around five years old, was beaten and crushed to death under a tractor in Kishanpur sanctuary of DTR Sunday even- ing after it mauled a 50-year-old man of Chaltua village of Pilibhit district. The village is located in the core zone of DTR.
Angry over the killing, villagers attacked the DTR field staff, who were combing the area on elephants and a specially designed tractor since Oct 27 when the tigress had injured a youth Ramman, another official said. Deputy director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Mahavir Kaujlagi, said the villagers manhandled the mahouts and held back the elephants.
They seized control of the tractor, cornered the tigress on a route in the forest and ran the big cat over with the tractor, the official said. Field director Pandey said this sequence of events had been incorporated in the FIR.
“During the autopsy, it was revealed that the villagers caused not only ante-mortem but also post-mortem injuries to the big cat. The first hand observation of the carcass revealed that attempts were made to pull out the tigress’s nails and its canines were found broken, which indicated the brutality inflicted on the big cat,” he said.
Asked why the tigress became aggressive, Pandey said, “The tigress was not the least aggressive but had grown sluggish and irritated due to a parasite load in the abdominal area and a porcupine quil which had penetrated its nasal cavity and throat, as observed during the post-mortem.” Pandey added, “Owing to irritation in its body, the tigress preferred to stay in one place and it only attacked those whom it feared was approaching it (the tigress).”
A team of experts of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar and Lucknow zoo conducted the autopsy at the Dudhwa headquarters in Pallia on Monday in accordance with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines.