PATNA: Forest officials in Bihar’s West Champaran district found a male tiger lying dead in the Manguraha forest range of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in the west Chamaran district on Friday.This is the second incident of the death of a tiger in VTR due to territorial fight since January this year and fourth one since 2019.The carcass was found during routine patrolling of the forest by the security personnel. They immediately alerted the senior officials of VTR, who banned the entry of any outsider to the site of occurrence.“Prime facie it appeared that the death occurred due to the injuries sustained in a fight with other big cats in the forest. The tiger seems to be 8–year old. However, age and exact cause of death would be known after postmortem,” said divisional forest officer Pradumna Gaurav.“Viscera will be sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly and the Wildlife Institute of India (WWI) at Dehradun for forensic testing,” DFO Gaurav said, ruling out the possibility of poaching as the cause of death.On March 25 this year, the carcass of a tiger was recovered from compartment number 55 of Maguraha forest range of VTR. The dead big cat was about 6-7 years old. Prior to this incident, a tiger’s carcass was found near the Sirisiya forest area under Gobardhana forest range of VTR. Earlier, a tigress was found dead in the Raghiya forest area near Godhaghat village, in VTR, on December 31, 2019. This incident was also attributed to the fight between two big cats over their territory in the forest.
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