All forest department officials of Pench Tiger Reserve, who were quarantined after the death of T-21 tiger, have completed their quarantine period and all are fit now. The tiger died on April 4 in Pench Tiger Reserve. National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had issued alert after tiger was found COVID-19 positive in US. Pench Tiger Reserve is spread in Seoni and Chhindwara districts in Madhya Pradesh.
The T-21 tiger died due to lungs infection and high fever. Antibiotics were administered on the tiger but it did not improve the health and ultimately it died on April 4. The officials were in tension as tiger was showing abnormal behavior so entire team (14 members) were quarantined.
Director Pench Tiger Reserve Vikram Singh said, “Entire team members were quarantined in forest after the death of T-21 tiger. Now their quarantine period is over and all are okay. Entry of visitors was totally banned in Pench Tiger Reserve after the death of tiger. Our team was having close vigil on T-21 as it used to visit water reservoir and died at the reservoir. Post-mortem was conducted and the entire team sent on quarantine as preventive measure.”
