Sariska tiger injured in territorial fight dies, big cat number down to 16
TRAGEDY This is the third tiger death after reserve was repopulated between 2008 and 2012 THE TIGER, ST-4, WAS CREMATED AFTER A TEAM OF DOCTORS CONDUCTED THE POSTMORTEM SARISKA (ALWAR):
The Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in Rajasthan’s Alwar district lost a tiger on Sunday morning, 26 days after it was injured in a territorial fight with another big cat, forest officials said. The tiger was cremated after a team of doctors conducted the post-mortem.
With this loss, the number of tigers in Sariska has come down to 16.
“Tiger ST-4, which was put in an enclosure in Kali Ghati forest range after it got injured, died on Sunday morning,” said STR chief conservator of forests Govind Sagar Bhardwaj.
Dr Dinkar Sharma, head of the board of doctors, said prima facie the cause of death is traumatic shock. “We have collected the samples and will send it to Bareilly for testing,” he said. Sharma added that the tiger had not eaten anything in the past few days.
ST-4 is the third tiger to have died after the reserve was repopulated between 2008 and 2012. ST-1, the first tiger relo- cated from Ranthambore, died in 2010 after villagers poisoned it. In March this year, tiger ST-11 died after it was caught in a snare put up by a farmer to protect his crops from stray animals.
ST-5, which was last seen on February 21, was on October 24 confirmed by the forest department to have been killed by a person the same month it had gone missing.
Bhardwaj said ST-4 and ST-6 are both around 12-14 years old. They clashed with each other on the night of November 13, and ST-4 was wounded on the left leg and elsewhere on the body.
The wounded big cat was treated by veterinarian Dr Arvind Mathur on November 14. “After the treatment, the tiger was shifted to an enclosure for monitoring,” Mathur said.
Bhardwaj said ST-6 was also under observation. “Monitoring teams were keeping an eye on him, too, to make sure he had not suffered any injuries,” he said.
Tiger ST-4 was relocated from Ranthambore in 2010 and ST-6 was brought from there the following year. Both had a history of fighting over territory. ST-6 had taken injuries and treated on October 7.
ST-6 had attacked assistant conservator of forests Daulat Singh in Ranthambore, inflicting serious injuries on him, before it was shifted to Sariska.
The STR, 200km from Delhi, is spread across 800 sq km with a core area of approximately 500 sq km. It lost all its tigers in 2005 and was repopulated with tigers from Ranthambore. At present, it has 11 adult tigers and five cubs.
In April, tigress ST-14 had given birth to two cubs after a gap of two years.