Narmadapuram (Madhya Pradesh): Two tigers were found dead over the past two days in the Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR) in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram district with a territorial fight being suspected to be the prima facie cause, raising the number of big cats died in the last six days in various incidents in MP to four.
STR's field director L Krishnamoorthy on Monday said that a patrolling team had spotted the carcass of a tiger cub, aged around 5-6 months, with injuries in the Mogra area of the Pachmarhi range on Saturday (April 2).
While searching the area the next day (April 3), the forest team found another injured tiger, aged around eight years, some 500 metres away from the spot where the carcass of the cub was spotted.
"The adult tiger died in the cage while it was being taken for medical treatment," Krishnamoorthy said.
He said the two big cats might have died in a territorial fight.
The carcasses of both the tigers were disposed of as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority's guidelines and the viscera was sent to a laboratory for examination, an official said.
On March 30, a tiger was found dead on a highway in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district with officials suspecting that the feline was hit by a speeding vehicle.
In another incident, a tiger was found dead in the Lalbarra area of the Balaghat district on April 3, the official said.
As per the All-India Tiger Estimation Report 2018, Madhya Pradesh was home to 526 tigers, the highest for any state in the country.
MP has many tiger reserves, including Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Satpura and Panna.
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