Gujarat’s rendezvous with tiger ends, big cat found dead in Mahisagar forest

VADODARA/AHMEDABAD: The fortnight of excitement over tiger sighting in Gujarat has turned out to be short-lived as the big cat was found dead in the forest area of Mahisagar district on Tuesday.

Much to the shock of the forest officials, the tiger’s decomposed body was found in the forest near Signali in the district at around 5pm.




Vadodara chief conservator of forests S K Shrivastava told TOI that the carcass was found around 12km away from the place where it was spotted the last time on camera last week.



Rajeev Gupta, additional chief secretary, forests and environment, told TOI: “As per the primary information that we have received, the tiger died before two or three days. However, all four legs and nails were in tact.” “The viscera and other body parts have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to ascertain the exact cause of its death,” he said.

Initial reports suggested that one of the front legs of the tiger was missing, raising strong suspicion of poaching.



The male tiger was around 5-7 years old and it had crossed over into Gujarat from adjoining Madhya Pradesh. It was on February 6 that a local schoolteacher had photographed it crossing the road near Boriya village. The forest department had installed trap cameras following the sighting and it was captured in one of them, around two km from Santrampur, on February 12.

Since the local population as well as forest department officials did not have any experience in handling a tiger, a massive awareness drives for its employees as well; as villagers was carried out. Fearing that poachers may be seeing an opportunity to kill the tiger, the department had stepped up its interaction with villagers and had asked them to inform officials in case they saw any suspicious person. Villagers were also advised that they should not disclose the location of the tiger to anyone.