Valpoi: Forest department has registered second death of tiger in Mahadayi Wildlife Sanctuary, within two days, with the recovery of another carcass on Tuesday.
The first tiger carcass was found at Golavali village in Sattari taluka on Sunday. A senior forest department official said that the second carcass has been found.
Four suspects, all living in the Golavali village, are taken into custody, while combing operation has begun in the forests of Mahadayi to find any more carcasses, the official said.
He said that prime facie both the deaths are suspected to be “revenge killing” by the suspects by poisoning the wild cats as they have been attacking the livestock (buffalos and cows) in the village.
“Second carcass was recovered on Tuesday, within one kilometer area of the first. The investigations would reveal, if there are more such carcasses,” he said.
The forest department officials who have conducted post-mortem on the first carcass have found that it was of a tiger cub, which was less then a year old.
“Both the carcasses are of tiger which is less than a year old. They were caught roaming in the sanctuary along with their mother in a camera trap that was laid by forest department on December 23,” he said.
Camera trap is a method adopted by the department to record presence of tiger in the area.
Goa-based environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar said that it is shameful that such mass killing of tiger are reported in the area.
“Forest department should have taken some steps to protect the tigers when they had recorded their presence in the area,” he said.
