Concern over tiger death

BOKARO: The mysterious death of tiger Vishnu at the Jawaharlal Nehru Biological (JNB) Park has raised the concerns of state forest officials.
Park authorities, after three days of the incident, informed Bokaro DFO K Manish Arvind about the death of the tiger claiming that it died of ill-health. The reason apparently did not satisfy the forest officials. The report has been sent to the wildlife division of state forest department.
Vishnu was one of the two male tigers brought by BSL management from Maitri Bagh, Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) in 2005. It is fourth big cat to die in the zoo in a span of seven years, including one male tiger Ram, which died last year.
"We should have been given informed about the death on the day of the incident and that too, before conducting its postmortem. But the JNB officials have not informed us on the day. It is unjustified and creates suspicion and makes things more mysterious. They have also not taken a video of the autopsy or the cremation process performed, which is mandatory," he said.
The post mortem of the tiger was performed by a veterinary doctor of the zoo G Chakraborty along with ex-vet, M A Salam.
Chief conservator of forest (CCF), wildlife, A K Gupta said that they have taken up the matter seriously and asked the DFO to provide him details. They will have meeting with PCCF, wildlife, A K Malhotra on the issue and decide on what action to take against Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL), which runs and maintains the JNB park.
Chief of communication BSL, Sanjay Tiwari said that the tiger had a natural death.