Radio collar infection kills Sunderbans tigress; 2nd in six months

Sunderban, March 18: A Sunderban tigress, treated for an illness for more than a year and collared, died of infection on Tuesday. She was released in the wild just 7 months ago.

Director of the Sunderban Tiger Reserve said,"We found its skeleton deep inside the jungle on Tuesday morning after a search operation for nearly four days. A team of veterinary surgeons confirmed that the tigress died of an infection that was caused by the collar."

This is the second such incident where a Tiger died of infection from a collar. Just 6 months ago, a tigress that was raised in captivity was relocated to the wilderness and gave birth to cubs, died of a similar infection at Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

This Tiger was captured in early 2013 when she was limping. She was taken to Sajnekhali for treatment. After treatment, she was released in the wild in 2014. She was fitted with a radio collar, which turned to be a huge success.

Everything was going on fine, but in the last one month, it was observed that the Tigress was not moving at all. "Initially we thought that it had given birth and confined itself to a small area. We also thought the collar might have fallen off. But then we thought of launching a search operation."

The last signal was picked up in an area, which has high tiger density. Sensing danger in this area, close to 20 forest officials carried guns and crackers and crawled on the ground and reached the spot on Tuesday. "There they managed to find the skeleton with the patch of skin still clining on to the collar. The skeleton was intact," said a senior forest official.

OneIndia News