The carcass of a two to three-year-old tiger was found in the buffer zone of the Pench National Park in between Badal Par and Laonar Pindarai region of the Chindawara district. A fisherman who caught the site of the big cat whose paws were missing on Saturday morning informed the forest department immediately.
According to officials from the forest department, occult practices have become a major threat to tiger conservation in India. As per the preliminary investigation, speculations of the death may be due to electrocution by the electric wire for fishing by locals or live wire used across fields to keep away boars. As far as the missing paws are considered, the officials said they might have either been cut after villagers found the animal dead or the big cat might have been poached for the claws.
Clarity into the incident will be given after a detailed probe is conducted, the officials concluded.
The death of a tiger surfaces on the day the Forest department re-opened all tiger reserves after they were shut down for three months during monsoon.