Thursday, 17 November 2022 | PNS | RAMNAGAR
The death of an old Tigress in the Marchula market area of the Almora district on Monday night has raised serious questions on the functioning of the forest department. The tigress, aged about eight to 10 years, strayed from the forest into the Marchula area in Kalagarh forest division adjacent to Jim Corbett National Park on Monday night. The director of the park, Dhiraj Pandey said that the tigress was spotted in the populated area of Marchula around 9:15 PM on Monday and it allegedly attacked locals. He said that the forest officials reached the spot immediately after getting the information and warned the locals to stay away from the tigress. The team tried to drive the tigress towards the forest while keeping the safety of the public in mind but then it became restless and violent due to which, forest officer Chandra Mohan Bhatt shot nine rounds of fire from his rifle in the air. However, this attempt failed as the tigress became more violent and attempted to enter houses and shops considering which, forest guard Dhiraj Singh fired two rounds on the ground with a 12 bore gun but a shrapnel hit the right thigh of the tigress, said Pandey. According to him, the body was brought to the rescue centre for investigation and to conduct the post-mortem on Tuesday. As per the post-mortem report, the tigress died due to shrapnel in the right thigh and excessive bleeding. He said that its intestine was also found empty and a porcupine spike of about 10 cm was also found in the liver of the tigress that had caused severe damage too. Pandey said that the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) administration is conducting an investigation into how the tigress reached the Marchula market. He said that the administration has taken the tigress’ death seriously and has attached the forest guard Dhiraj Singh to another range in Sendhikhal of the division. The whole matter is under investigation by the forest department, added Pandey.
