The death of four wild dogs in the buffer area of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in The Nilgiris on Wednesday has upset the wildlife lovers in the State seeking stringent action against those who poisoned the wild animals.
wild dogs
Chennai:
According to The Nilgiris wildlife sources, anti-poaching watchers came to know about the death of wild dogs during a regular patrol in the thickets. “There are cases of tigers and leopards being poisoned to death after they turn man-eaters or killing livestock, but this is a rare case where wild dogs were found dead,” they said. “Last month a tiger mauled a tribal woman in Nilgiris killing her in the Singara range.
The wild dog poisoning incident happened in an adjacent area, Bokkapuram. We suspect that the villagers could have poisoned to eliminate the elusive tiger and the wild dogs could have become the victims,” said a retired forest official in the region. When contacted additional principal chief conservator of forests Shekhar Kumar Niraj said that the department was aware of the case and had sounded an alert instructing the MTR and The Nilgiris foresters to conduct a discreet scientific investigation into the issue. “There are two possibilities for the death of wild dogs, first could be a case of poisoning by residents and second, it could be a canine distemper,” he said.