Forest officials have recovered the carcass of a 14-year-old tigress beside road number 2 of the National Park Betla under Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR).
Sources said the death of the tigress is not due to any poaching but a fight with a bison. Betla Ranger Prem Prasad said the 14 year old tigress was found dead and a bison of the park killed her in a fight that broke out between the two last night.
No senior official could be reached for comments on Sunday. Sources said the location from where the tigress’s carcass was recovered had numerous footprints of bison and the tigress which suggested a fight was one between the two.
National Park Betla has seen many such fights among its occupants but it is the first time that a tigress succumbed to the injuries sustained in a fight with a herbivore animal.
D S Srivastava, who is secretary Nature Conservation Society and a member of the state wild life board, said in the year 1982 -83 then queen tigress of Betla had a fight like this with a bison which died and the Begum lived to enjoy its prey.
Srivastava on his return from Betla said “The dead tigress was 8.6 feet long. It had worn out claws and teeth. It had all the fragility of ageing.”
He said this tigress might have attempted to kill a baby bison which may have led to the fight.
The horn of the bison went 3 inches inside the belly of this tigress resulting in its death, he said, adding that the tigress was burnt with hide and other assets of her body intact.
A team of vet doctors also did a postmortem of the cat.
The PTR officials shut the National Park on Sunday and there is no word as to when it will reopen for tourists.