T4’s death exposes lack of preparedness of foresters

Nagpur: Tranquillizing of a tigress (T4), which led to its death, by a driver of an assistant conservator of forests (ACF) has kicked up a controversy. The latest tiger death in Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, 180km from here in Pandharkawda, is the sixth in the state since January this year.
Missing for the past 18 months, the tigress with a nylon rope in her neck, was first recorded on September 11, 2017 on a camera trap. Some unsuccessful attempts were made by one of the vets to capture T4 but no efforts were made later to track it.

The missing tigress was once again recorded on camera traps on Saturday. On Sunday evening, T4 was sighted near a nullah with sluggish movement. In a hurriedly called operation without the presence of any senior forest officials, eight guides, a livestock development officer (LDO) Dr Udarraj Nakade from Jamb, and driver Suraj Mahakulkar attempted to catch T4 with a net at around 4.30pm. The tigress attacked two guides — Irfan Sheikh and Ashwin Bakamwar — while others ran away.

While Sheikh suffered a leg injury, Bakamwar miraculously escaped. T4 tried to catch his neck but he put his hand forward and suffered injuries in chest and hand. He was treated in Umri and later in Yavatmal Medical College.

The tigress later moved some 10-15 feet before stopping. “Her reflexes were weak and movement was sluggish. Hence, we decided to dart the animal so that it can be treated. Dr Nakade prepared the dart and Mahakulkar fired it at 6.30pm,” said divisional forest officer (DFO) Pramod Panchbhai.

According to sources, the driver fired two darts and it is not confirmed whether the tigress died of medicine overdose. Though darting was done in presence of a vet, Mahakulkar is not a trained professional. Dr Nakade was not available for comments.

The NTCA SOP performing such operations need a skilled team comprising wildlife managers, biologists, trained veterinarians, and most preferably an individual specializing in animal anaesthesia.

The operation recalled a similar mistakes committed during T1 killing where drugs used for tranquillizing tiger were handled by non-professionals and unauthorized personal. Veterinary drugs like xylazine, ketamine etc were handled by unauthorized person.

DFO Panchbhai defended the darting by the driver, who he says used to get training at base camps. He added, “The vet we called had never darted an animal. Though I was not present at the spot, wildlife vet Chetan Patond and I were guiding the team while on our way to the sanctuary. The condition of T4 was so serious that had we not attempted to rescue it, the animal would have died the following day.”

Panchbhai denied that the tigress died of overdose of anaesthesia. “Only taxological samples reports will be able to reveal what was the exact cause of death. There were maggots on entire body and its internal organs were also damaged due to snare,” he said.