RAIPUR: The death of a male tiger under mysterious circumstances at Baikunthpur forest adjoining the Guru Ghasidas National Park, about 350 km north of Raipur, has bewildered the Chhattisgarh State Forest Department. This is the third tiger death in the state since 2022 and the second suspected poaching reported this year after a tiger was killed in January in the same area. Chhattisgarh has witnessed a depressing record in the ‘Save the Tiger’ mission with the big cat population in the state going down by around 59 per cent from 46 in 2014 to 19 according to the 2019 tiger census report. But officials now claimed to have improved the tally to 23 tigers. A team of doctors conducted a post-mortem of the tiger, which was found dead by locals near the bank of river Khankopar close to Devshil Katwar forest village in north Chhattisgarh. However, officials have not divulged any piece of information from the autopsy report amid conflicting inputs citing missing teeth and claws from the tiger’s carcass. The deceased tiger was believed to be seven years old.
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