Authorities in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park have found the carcass of a semi-adult male, taking the number of tiger deaths in the park to four this year.
P Sivakumar, director of the park, said the carcass of the two-year-old tiger was found in the Burapahar range of the 430 sq km park, the biggest habitat of one-horned rhinos in the world.
“The carcass was found on Friday. It bore several injury marks and the skull was almost crushed. Investigation suggests that it had died due to infighting with other male tigers the previous day,” he said.
This is the second such death reported this month and the fourth one this year. All cases are the outcome of infighting.
On May 10, the carcass of a semi-adult tigress was found in the Bagori range and in April an adult tiger was found dead in the Kohora range. In January, the carcass of a three-month-old tiger was found.
Kaziranga was declared a tiger reserve in 2006 and with 121 Royal Bengal Tigers, it has one of the highest density of the species in the world.
“In Kaziranga, tiger deaths are mostly due to infighting and not old age. In a year, the average number of such deaths is nearly 10. In other parks, prey base is low, the number of tigers is also low and the area is much larger. So they don’t have many instances of infighting,” said Sivakumar.
In the latest instance, forest officials have also detected cannibalism with parts of the dead tiger’s body consumed by other tigers.
“The skull was broken and face disfigured. It appears the attacker, a fully grown adult aged around 10-12 years, might have crushed it. The semi-adult tiger was not able to survive the attack. In this case, we also noticed cannibalism,” said Sivakumar.
Though it is peak tourist season, all national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and zoos in Assam have been closed since March 16 as a precautionary measure against the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
