21-month-old tigress found dead in MP
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The Times of India
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Bhopal
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28 Jul 2012
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A 21-month-old tigress was found dead close to Talgaon area of Madhya Pradesh`s much-talked Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) on Friday. The park is spread over 543 sq km, where a big cat revival programme is underway after it lost all the tigers primarily to poaching some three years ago.
The sub-adult tigress, tagged as 214, was found dead during patrolling in the core area of PTR in Panna and Chhatarpur district. The body didn`t bear any injury mark, officials said. It must have died before pre-dawn, they added.
Post-mortem of the animal would ascertain the cause of the death, officials said. With this death, the tiger population, comprising sub-adults and cubs has come down to 19 from 20. After the reserve, situated in eastern MP, became devoid of big cats, four tigresses and a tiger were trans-located to Panna from other parks to revive its population, officials said. The revival plan had met with success after the birth of cubs.
Tigress - 214 was born to T-2 that was trans-located to PTR from Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) on March 9, 2009. The dead tigress was the fourth cub of the first litter of T-2, officials said.
Meanwhile, the top officials of the reserve have reached the spot and are studying as to what went wrong that would have resulted in the tigress` death. "I have left the state capital for Panna," PTR field director RS Murthy said. "I was not there so I can`t comment over the cause of the death", he added.
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