Special Correspondent
NewsBits.in
Bhopal: Another male tiger was found dead in the buffer zone of Pench Tiger Reserve on Monday, taking the tiger death toll in Madhya Pradesh to 22 this year. In Pench alone, 10 tigers have succumbed during first half of 2016.
Another major tiger abode, Kanha has also reported seven deaths this year.
According to sources, the body of the tiger was found in a decomposed condition in Gorakhpur beat of the Tiger Reserve. It is being surmised that the tiger might have died at least six to seven days ago.
The Pench Reserve has been under glare this year because of multiple deaths of tigers reported. The last death was recorded on July 18 in the Karmajhiri range of the reserve.
Activists have been crying foul over the shockingly high number of deaths. Talking to NewsBits.in, activist Ajay Dubey said that the spike in deaths is due to failure of the state forest authorities to bring in due preventive measures.
“There is no security audit, no vigilance team and despite our repeated alarms, the Tiger Protection Force has yet not been constituted,” he said.
Dubey also mentioned that rampant illegal construction, illegal fishing and alleged nexus between forest employees and owners of properties around the tiger reserve were a big impediment in safety of the big cats.
MP, once called tiger state, due to highest population of big cats in the country, has now slipped to third position behind Karnataka and Uttarakhand.
