Paralysed tiger with bullet injuries battling for life

The Madhya Pradesh forest department has started an investigation into the shooting of a tiger in Betul district which left it battling for life with partial paralysis.

The department had earlier claimed that the tiger had fallen off from a height and broken its spine which paralysed its hind legs. The tiger which was shifted to Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal on Saturday is still critical and is being fed intravenously. The three-year-old male tiger was found injured and immobile on Friday in Betul’s Rathipur area, about 155 km from Bhopal. After local villagers informed forest officials, the tiger was rescued by a team from Satpura tiger reserve and shifted on Saturday to Van Vihar. An X-ray revealed a bullet in its abdomen which was surgically removed on Monday.

Meanwhile, a 3-year-old male tiger died mysteriously in Madhya Pradesh’s Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve on Tuesday evening, taking the number of big cat deaths in the state to 6 this year.

Dileep Kumar, field director of the reserve, said the tiger was shifted to Sanjay Tiger Reserve from Pench on March 21.