Tigress’ tail chopped off in Sariska Tiger Reserve

ALWAR: It seems the poachers are back in action at Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR). In the last one month, 15 poachers were arrested by the wildlife and forest department.
The wildlife and forest officials at the reserve are perplexed over the loss of tail of tigress ST-9. They said that the tigress’ tail has been completely cut off. ST-9 has a radio collar. The matter came to the notice of the forest officials after it was captured in a trap camera. However, they did not confirm whether the tigress lost its tail in a fight with other tigers or was it cut off by poachers.
As soon as the matter came to the notice of Sariska officials, they called vets from Jaipur.
A team of veterinary doctors under Dr Arvind Mathur is camping at Sariska. However, the tigress has become very violent and inaccessible for tranquilization.
STR director Balaji Kari said that efforts to tranquilize the tigress are on for last three days, but they have not met with any success.
In fact, the tigress has withdrawn to some desolate place where accessibility is quite impossible.
“Initially, we thought it was some infection but it came to our notice that the tigress’ tail has been completely chopped off,” Kari said.
The arrest of some 15 poachers in a month with meat of wild pig and sambhar has alerted the officials.
It may be mentioned that after the relocation of tigers from Ranthambore to Sariska, one of the tigers (ST-1) was poisoned to death by poachers within a year of reintroduction.