COIMBATORE: One more tiger, this time a cub, was found dead in Sigur forest area in ‘Chinna’ Coonoor in the Nilgiris on Sunday taking the death toll of the big cats to seven in a month.
After an examination on Monday, the veterinarians suspect the barely two month’s old male cub to have died of starvation.
“A post mortem revealed that it was in an empty stomach and had starved to death. Its mother tiger couldnot be found anywhere in the locality,” said an official.
A team of forest department staff have been formed to perambulate the forest area to find out if there are any other tiger cubs either abandoned or dead in the nearby locality.
“Samples of the carcass have been sent for a laboratory analysis in Coimbatore to ascertain the exact cause of its death,” added the official.
After post mortem, the carcass of the animal was burnt as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines.
The death of one more tiger cub has sent shock waves among wildlife conservationists as just a few days ago, two male tigers aged eight and three were poisoned to death by a farmer near a river flowing into Avalanche Dam.
The farmer from Emerald village was arrested by the forest department. With this, a total of seven tigers have died in the Nilgiris in around a month.