A tigress and a male cub died in the forests of Madhya Pradesh in the past 24 hours.
The two-year-old tigress was found dead on Monday in a well in the area of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Umaria district, while the other death was reported in Pench National Park of Seoni district.
"The tigress might have fallen into the well while running away from an attack by wild animals and drowned," BTR's ranger Vijay Shankar Shrivastava said, adding that the forest department was probing the feline's death from various angles.
The well is located in Milli village, which was included in the BTR's core area some years back.
The mutilated carcass of the male cub was yesterday found in the Karmajhiri range of Pench National Park.
The park's field director, Shubhranjan Sen, said it seemed as if a powerful male tiger active in the area had attacked the cub. "The pug
marks of a tiger were spotted at the site. The marks of dragging the cub were also seen. The post-mortem examination report indicated that the cub's skull bones were broken," he said.
There was no sign of poaching at the site, he said. A tigress was recently spotted with its three cubs in the area. The dead cub might be one of them, Pench National Park's deputy director KK Gurwani said.