10-year-old tiger found dead at BTR's N Begur range near Mysuru

MYSURU: A carcass of around 10-year-old tiger was found at N Begur range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve on Sunday. The foresters suspect that the tiger might have died of starvation.
The post-mortem of the tiger was conducted on Monday in N Begur Range of BTR wildlife veterinarian Nagraj in presence of director T Balachandra, honorary wildlife warden Krithika Alanahally and NTCA representative Raghuram.
Speaking to TOI, BTR director T Balachandra said that the tiger carcass was found deep inside the forest.
“The preliminary investigation suggested that the tiger might have died of starvation and fever. During post-mortem, it was found that the tiger which was old had not eaten any food might be due to fever. There was no food in the stomach and digested food in the intestines. Due to feverishness it might not have eaten food. There was no infighting as there were injury marks on its body,” he said.
Balachandra said that the samples of the deceased tiger have been sent to a veterinary lab in Hebbal in Bengaluru and to a forensic lab for analysis to know the exact cause of the death. “Prima facie it is found that death due to starvation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the photographs taken by the foresters of the deceased tiger were used for the comparison with the tiger images in the photo-database records maintained at the Tiger cell.
The report was prepared using the six years camera trap data of BTR available in the database from 2012-13 to 2019-2020 of the Tiger Cell at Aranya Bhavan in Bengaluru. The images obtained were compared with the tiger images in the photo-database.
Tiger was from Maddur Rage
The BTR foresters told TOI that this was matched with the dead tiger which was code named Bandipur15_U1390.
The individual was first photo-captured in Maddur range in BTR on 15th October 2014. It was subsequently camera-trapped in the year 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. Based on the body size, physical appearance from the photos and photo-capture history of this tiger, the age of this tiger at mortality is estimated to be about 9-10 years.
Photo-captures of the Tiger Bandipur15_U1390 during 2014-2020 and the death location were mapped on the BTR for visual representation of the usual range where it has spent time during the entire documentation period and the location of death.
Finally, based on the details, it was observed that the photographic evidence and photo-capture history in the maps show that the tiger Bandipur15_U1390 was a resident male Tiger of Moliyur and N Begur ranges from the past five years. The male Tiger was evident to be in movement in 2014-15 from Maddur -- Hediyala ranges to Moliyur-N Begur -- AM Gudi ranges where it established territory since then till 2019-2020.
The territorial area (polygon) based on the photo-capture history of this tiger in the past three years is approximately about 66sq kms.
Mortalities and dispersals in a high-density tiger landscape such as BTR are more likely among sub-adults trying to find new territories, and among old, weakened tigers who are evicted from their home ranges, officers said.