Firing by forest guard: Magisterial probe ordered into tigress death

DEHRADUN : A magisterial probe was ordered into the death of a tigress whose carcass was found with a bullet wound in the Marchula market area in Almora district, officials said on Friday.

The magisterial probe was ordered into the incident on the recommendation of Uttarakhand chief wildlife warden Samir Sinha.

Almora district magistrate Vandana Singh Chauhan, while confirming the development, said she had received a letter from the principal secretary, forests and environment, to order a probe. “I have appointed the subdivisional magistrate to conduct the probe and submit a report within 10 days,” she said.

The tigress had entered the Marchula market area in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve around 9.15 pm on Monday. After receiving an alert, a forest department’s team from the Mandal range reached the area and tried to scare away the big cat, officials said.

“The tigress had turned violent and was a threat to the life of locals in the densely populated area. A forest official had initially fired nine rounds in the air using a 315-bore service rifle to scare away the animal towards the forest area, but it tried to enter the houses and shops repeatedly. Dheeraj Singh, a forest guard of CTR’s Mandal range, subsequently fired two rounds from a 12-bore gun to scare away the animal, but one of the bullets hit the big cat in its right thigh,” said Corbett Tiger Reserve director Dheeraj Pandey.

The postmortem of the tigress by a team of veterinary doctors, also confirmed that the animal died of bullet injuries resulting in excessive bleeding.

On Wednesday, the forest official was booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in connection with the killing of the tigress. On the basis of prima facie evidence, the forest official was attached to Plane Range Office in Sendhikhal of the Kalagarh Tiger Reserve. Ramnagarbased wildlife activist AG Ansari had said, “It’s an unthinkable act and first such incident in Corbett landscape. We can clearly see in the video of the incident that the barrel of the gun was pointed towards the animal. They could have used quick reaction team and made more attempts to tranquilize the tiger. No senior official, even ranger, was there and it could have been avoided.”