Two tigers found dead at Ranthambore, officials suspect territorial fight

Two tigers were found dead at the Ranthambore National Park, with forest officials suspecting that they were killed in a territorial fight with another tiger.

Postmortem of the tigers will be conducted today to find the exact cause of the death.

The tigers aged year-and-a-half were litter of tigress T-79 and were found dead at Aanwad-ki-Khad of Swai Man Singh Sanctuary in the park on Tuesday.

Apparently, they were killed by another male tiger, Field Director of the RNP, YK Sahu said.

Forest department officials said the carcasses have been kept at Kundal Naka near Rajbagh Choki of RNP.

Territorial disputes have been rising in the park due to increase in tiger population. The population of tigers is nearly 70, including cubs and sub-adults. The population is almost double the capacity of a national park, forest officials said.

A tiger demarcates 10-12 sq km area as its territory where it does not allow a rival to enter, they said.

The two sub-adults were born to T-79 and were photographed in May last year. Four tigers have died in a month in the state.

On March 20, a four-year-old male tiger from Sariska, ST-11, got strangulated in a barbed wire fence laid out by a poacher. The big cat was found dead in an agriculture field.

Just a day later, on March 21, another male tiger died in Ranthambore after it was tranquillised while being rescued.

The 13-year-old male tiger T-28, famously known as “Star” or “Sitara”, was being rescued from a village in Khandar area on the parks periphery. It had strayed close to village Chaan, where people had surrounded it.

A forest department team reached the spot to rescue the big cat and tranquillised it. However, the tiger never got up after being tranquillised.