Melghat tiger poached in MP, body parts seized

Vijay Pinjarkar | TNN | Apr 16, 2020, 04:08 IST

Nagpur: The Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) tiger T-23, which was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Khaknar range of Burhanpur forest division in Madhya Pradesh on April 11, was a case of poaching.
Burhanpur divisional forest officer (DFO) Sandhya said, “We have arrested a forest guard Diwakar Sharma and seized body parts from him. Sharma has been remanded to forest custody. Role of a forest chowkidar is also under scanner and will be nabbed soon. We are also looking into others who set afire the carcass by removing body parts.”
T-23 was said to be occupying Ambabarva wildlife sanctuary, which is now part of MTR. The tiger was found dead 10km away from the sanctuary in compartment number 361 of Ambajhol beat of Khaknar range.
Burhanpur DFO has written to Melghat officials to know whether there was any cattle kill on their side and was it poisoned to ascertain whether it is case of revenge killing.
On the contrary, MTR’s Akot division officials have a different version to tell. They said two accused — Rupchand alias Bondriya Buddha from Pangari, and Jyoti alias Gutali Barela from Dantpahadi — have been arrested. Tiger body parts including nails, teeth and canines, tail, part of vertebra etc have been seized from Buddha, they claimed.
They also claimed Barela had poisoned a buffalo killed by the tiger. The carcass was first noticed by Dantpahadi locals who informed the foresters. By the time forest officials reached the spot, some locals had tried to destroy evidence by burning the carcass.
Sources said a team of Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) dealing in wildlife crimes had also visited the crime spot and is investigating the poaching case.
This is the 26th tiger death in the country since January 1, 2020. Of this, 50% of the tiger deaths have been reported from inside the tiger reserve while remaining 13 are from outside the reserves.