Another tiger poached

Three poachers who had struck a deal to sell a tiger’s pelt, jaw bones and claws to a police decoy team near Periyapatna, 60km from Mysore, tried to make good their escape by firing in the air in the early hours on Friday. Two of them scooted, but the third was caught near Naviluru in Periyapatna taluk. According to forest officials, the tiger was felled a month ago and the poachers were trying to make a killing by selling off its pelt and bones. The poaching incident sheds new light on the Nagarahole tiger reserve, which was in the eye of a storm recently when some 2,000 hectares of the forest was destroyed in what is said to be man-made wildfire. The police have recovered the tiger pelt from the arrested person and reported the big cat’s death to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). After an initial probe, forest officials said the poachers felled the big cat on the tiger reserve fringes. PCCF (wildlife) B K Singh said: “The tiger is a territorial animal and may have moved out of the core area due to territorial conflict.” Singh said the tiger was from the Nagarahole reserve.