Rajasthan: 2 tigers killed in two days, say officials

Two male tigers were killed in separate incidents in the tiger reserves of Sariska and Ranthambore in Rajasthan over the past two days, officials said today.

A 13-year-old tiger died after he was rescued from a village in Khandar area near Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district today.

"The tiger strayed and went close to a village where people surrounded him. A team of the forest department tranquilised and shifted him to a forest area, but he died after some time," Chief Conservator of Forest (Sawai Madhopur) Y K Sahu, said.

Another four-year-old male big cat was found dead in a farm near the Sariska Forest Reserve in Alwar district yesterday.

The tiger prima facie died of strangulation after getting stuck in a wire trap, placed by a farmer to stop wild animals from damaging his crop, Chief Conservator of Forest (Alwar) Govind Bharadwaj said.

The farmer was arrested after he surrendered before the forest department. He was booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, Bharadwaj said, adding that the accused was being interrogated to ascertain if it was a case of poaching.

The postmortem reports of the two tigers were awaited, officials said.

Talking about the incidents in a press conference, State Forest and Environment Minister Gajendra Singh Khinvsar highlighted the human-wildlife conflict.

He said the population of tigers, including cubs and sub-adults, in the Ranthambhore National Park is nearly 70. The population, he said, is almost double the capacity of the park.

"Tigers need to be translocated, which takes lot of surveillance and work. We will be translocating a pair of tiger and tigress each in Sariska and Mukundra Hills from Ranthambhore very soon," he said.

Khinvsar said though boundaries of forest cannot be made, the state government is working to constructing boundary wall of Ranthambhore National Park in a phased manner.