Tigress dead in Bandipur, 4th this year

Amid Rahul Gandhi’s demand to revoke the ban on night traffic passing through Bandipur National Park in Chamarajanagar, a tigress died after it was allegedly hit by a speeding vehicle near the national park on Saturday.

Forest officials found the carcass near the Jungle Lodges and Resorts (JLR) property at Melukamanahalli Gate of Bandipur. This is the fourth tiger death in Bandipur since January while the overall casualty figure for entire Karnataka stands at 11 in 2019.

Senior forest officials said the tigress died after being hit by a vehicle. T Balachandra, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, told DH that the tigress may have been “trying to limp into the forest after being hit by a speeding vehicle and succumbed to injuries near JLR”. He said veterinarians had “collected visceral samples” and sent them to the laboratory for further examination to ascertain the cause of death.

Foresters have found scraping marks of the tigress’ claws on the road. Further, the tigress’ body hair was also found smeared on to the road suggesting that the feline may have been hit by a vehicle moving at high speed.

Park officials are looking at CCTV footage for clues to locate the vehicle.

Dr Nagaraju, the veterinarian who conducted the post-mortem, said the tigress may have died of a road accident after 1.00 am.

“It had suffered a muscle tear besides damage to neck bone and the tip of the shoulder bone. The tigress also suffered internal bleeding,” he said.

The latest death brings the death toll to four since January in Bandipur. If casualties from both Bandipur, Nagarahole and Bhadra Tiger Reserve are put together, the toll rises to 11.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi’s demand on revoking the night ban, which was rejected by the Centre, saw the Congress leader being at the receiving end of trolling.