Srinivas, a sub-adult tiger, was found electrocuted and buried outside Umred- Karhandala Wildlife Sanctuary, 58 kms outside Nagpur on Thursday. A farmer and his son were arrested on Thursday afternoon in connection with the incident.
The tiger’s body was dug up on Thursday afternoon after forest officials found the two-year-old’s damaged radio collar with missing bolts and nuts near a nullah between Kothulna and Maushi villages in the forest range.
Srinivas is the son of Jai – one of the most famous tigers of the sanctuary – who went missing about a year ago.
The deceased tiger, identified as T-10 and named Srinivas, had gone missing since 19 April. The forest department had launched a search operation, in which his radio collar was found in Kothurna village on the same day.Shree Bhagwan, Maharashtra Principal Chief Conservator of Forests
In order to track and study the tigers’ movement, Srinivas and his brother Bittu were fitted with high-tech radio collars. While tracking them, however, their batteries had drained, so both were tranquillised and re-fitted. Srinivas’ collar was last changed on 5 December last year.
Settlements on the Edge of the Sanctuary
Srinivas had ventured outside the core zone of the wildlife sanctuary and into a human settlement that exists on the fringes of the forest.
Girish Vasishtha, spokesperson for the wildlife wing of the forest department, told Hindustan Times:
Locals put up electric fences to ward off animals like deer and sambars. It’s possible that Srinivas could have got electrocuted, and the locals buried the body in their land. It was the damaged radio collar that led forest officials to the two people.
The farmer questioned over Srinivas’ death, Mahadev Irpate, admitted that the tiger had died last week after it came in contact with the electric fence he has put around his farm. He also told the forest officials that when he found the tiger dead, he removed his collar and threw it somewhere and thereafter buried the carcass nearby .
Jai, Srinivas’ father, had gone missing from Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary near Nagpur on 19 April 2016. A massive search operation to find him hit a roadblock due to heavy rainfall in the region in the past one week.
(With inputs from PTI)
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