Death of five tigers: Discovery of cow carcass strengthens poisoning doubt
Bengaluru (PTI): The discovery of a seemingly stale carcass of a cow in Hugyam forest range in Mahadeshwara Hills on Friday strengthens the doubt that the death of a tigress and her four cubs could be due to poisoning, officials said.
These five tigers were found dead in this forest on Thursday.
It is suspected that the miscreants had poisoned the cow, and after eating it, the tigress and its cubs might have died.
"Either the bovine was poisoned before being left in the forest, or the owner of the cattle, after spotting the dead cow, would have spread poison on its body, which the tigress and her cubs ate and died," the officer said.
Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre too backed the same theory.
He said someone might have poisoned the cattle, which led to the death of the big cats.
"Our government has taken the matter very seriously, and we will investigate it from all angles. We will not spare those behind it," Khandre told reporters.
While the autopsy on the mother tigress was done on Thursday itself, the postmortem on the four cubs was underway on Friday, the forest officials said.
The tigress and the cubs were found dead during routine morning patrol by vigilant frontline staff, officials said.
A five-member team of experts on Thursday undertook a comprehensive necropsy following NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) protocols.
The tissue, blood, and stomach samples were being processed for toxicology, histopathology, and DNA profiling, forest officials said.
Following the incident, the forest department has strengthened monitoring and anti-poaching vigilance across the Hugyam range.
According to Kandre, real-time drone surveillance, infrared cameras, and GPS-based M-STRIPES patrols have been escalated across the range, and all Anti-Poaching Camps (APCs) are on high alert.
Intensive sweeps for snares, poison baits, and traps are being conducted, and a confidential informer network with reward mechanisms is operational for actionable intelligence, Khandre had said on Thursday.
Karnataka had the second highest number of tigers in the country, with 563 of these big cats, after Madhya Pradesh, which has 785, as per the Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India 2022 report.
The report was released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
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Tax exemption for Kannada movie ‘Landlord’: CM Siddaramaiah directs officials
Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that officials concerned have been instructed to let the Kannada movie ‘Landlord’, which reflects social inequality and caste-based oppression, be exempted from payment of tax.
Referring to the Duniya Vijay-starrer, which was released on January 23, the CM posted on his Facebook account that films were an effective medium to reform society and shape public opinion by passing valuable messages to the viewers. “It is our moral responsibility as a government to stand with and support those who make socially concerned films,” he stressed.
Siddaramaiah added, “I believe that our decision will inspire people to make more films like ‘Landlord’ that shed light on the social system in the coming days.”
