Taking a serious note of the spate of tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has set up a panel that has launched a probe into the incidents. A total of 18 big cats have died in the State since May 2015.
The two-member committee has already started its investigation and visited the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) where deaths of seven big cats out of 18 were reported during last twelve months. The panel comprises D Swain, Inspector General of Forest, NTCA, Nagpur and AR Choudhary, Assistant Director of Wildlife Crime Control.
The latest death reported was that of an eight-month-old orphaned cub which died of septicemia or blood infection at Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) earlier this month. The cub was brought to Kanha, a home for orphaned cubs, from PTR following the death of mother tigress. It had some injuries when it was brought from Pench which led to septicemia.