MB2 death: NTCA, WII experts begin probe

BHUBANESWAR: A team of scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the inspector general of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) visited the Satkosia Tiger Reserve on Friday to look into what transpired in the past seven days leading to the death of tiger MB2.
The WII team was led by scientist K Ramesh, who has been overseeing the translocation of tigers since the beginning. Accompanying him was NTCA’s inspector general Amit Mallik. They are likely to study satellite and radio frequency data regarding the tiger’s last location when it was alive and its subsequent movement in the run up to its death and the discovery of its carcass. Tiger MB2, brought from Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha tiger reserve to Satkosia for breeding, had a five-day old deep wound on the dorsal region of the neck, preliminary reports had revealed.

“Both the teams will visit the site where the tiger was found dead and its periphery,” principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Sandip Tripathi, said. The autopsy report of the tiger is yet to be prepared, he added. “The report will lead us to the exact cause of death,” he said. Biswajit Mohanty, who represented NTCA on the day of the disposal of the carcass, said the post-mortem would help reveal the time when the tiger received the wound and how.