Melanistic tiger killed on Similipal fringes in first week of Feb: Authorities

Riyan.Ramanath

Bhubaneswar: Similipal Tiger Reserve authorities on Wednesday revealed that the sub-adult male melanistic tiger, whose hide was seized recently, had been killed on its fringes in the first week of Feb.

However, the authorities are still not able to identify the big cat from the hide’s stripe pattern.

The melanistic tiger skin was seized from three people who were arrested on May 21.

“From interrogation of the arrested people and corroborating their version with the local intelligence, we found that the melanistic sub-adult male tiger was killed in Feb first week. Besides the three arrested, there are others involved in the poaching because it requires expert hands to extract hide from the tiger carcass," said Similipal field director Prakash Gogineni.

The wildlife authorities revealed the tiger dispersed too close to human habitation and was trapped in a snare that was put up to kill a wild boar.

Melanistic tigers are a rare variant of Royal Bengal Tiger with more black pigmentation/stripes on their body than the normal colour. Similipal is the only place in the world where such tigers are available in the wild.

“We have checked some of our database, and so far we have not found a match with the stripe pattern of the seized hide. I have asked the tiger cell to thoroughly check once more for any previous camera trap picture that may match with the hide, which can confirm the exact tiger because we number the tigers once they are captured in camera trap,” Gogineni said.

Earlier, Similipal authorities didn’t rule out hunting of such a tiger in their territory since it was a melanistic one. The skin has been sent for lab examination to Wildlife Institute of India, wildlife officials said.