Thaindian News

Jaipur, Nov 15 (IANS) A tiger has been found dead in Rajasthan’s Sariska Tiger Reserve, an official said Monday.

The carcass of the tiger was found late Sunday evening by forest officials who said that the wild cat must have died on account of a fight with another male tiger.

“Preliminary investigations suggest that the tiger aged around 5 years must have died in a fight with another wild cat,” a forest official said adding that the exact cause of death would be known after post-mortem.

“We started our search for this tiger after we found signals from its radio collar continuously coming from one particular place. This alarmed us and we found this tiger dead near Kankwadi area in the tiger reserve,” said the official.

Meanwhile, sources in the forest department said that the male tiger which may have attacked the dead cat has also gone missing since Nov 3. Forest officials denied this.

“The forest department has launched a massive search for the tiger and sought help of villagers and NGOs to trace it as the signals from the radio collar of the tiger have not been received since November 3,” a source said.

Forest department officials indicated that the tiger might have gone to the nearby Kuncha Jungle. It might be hiding in a ditch from where getting radio signals is difficult, the source said.

The tiger reserve was originally a hunting preserve of the erstwhile Alwar state. It was declared a wildlife reserve in 1955. In 1978, it was declared a tiger reserve.

The tiger reserve has an area of around 866 sq km and is located some 110 km from Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur.

Some of the wildlife found in the reserve include the leopard, jungle cat, hyena, jackal, chital, sambar, langur, wild boar, four-horned deer and several species of birds.

Since 2008, five tigers - two males and three females - have been relocated to the reserve from Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district.