18/03/2015
Radio collar kills Sunderbans tigress - TOI
The Times of India; 18.03.2015 By Krishnendu Mukherjee
The skeleton of a Sunderbans tigress, that was set free last year with a collar around its neck, was found in the swamp on Tuesday .
Foresters said initial investigations revealed that the big cat has died of “laceration wound“, triggered by the radio collar, in its neck . This is the second tiger casualty in India involving this gadget. In September 2014, a tigress in Madhya Pradesh's Panna died of an infection caused by its radio collar.
The Sunderbans tigress was captured in March 2013 from the forests of Pirkhali I with weak hind legs and brought to Sajnekhali for treatment. It was reintroduced in the wild on August 15 last year.
Chief wildlife warden of Bengal, Azam Zaidi, said: “The skeleton was found in Pirkhali 7. It's the same tigress that was radio-collared last year.“ Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR) field director Soumitra Dasgupta said when they reached the spot on Tuesday morning, they found the skeleton of the tigress with the collar around its neck. “ A piece of flesh and some hair were stuck to the collar. The radio collar was giving static and faulty signals since the last few days. On Tuesday , after we reached the remote location -a forest close to a narrow creek -we spotted the skeleton. Doctor's initial probe revealed that the tigress died of laceration wound, caused by the gadget, in its neck,“ Dasgupta added.
Sources said the skeleton proves that the big cat had died at least 10 to 15 days back. “With a collar around its neck giving signals, why did the foresters take so much time to locate the carcass?“ asked an expert who didn't want to be quoted. “We traced its location four days back. But, considering the hostile terrain of the Sunderbans and the fact that Pirkhali 7 has good density of big cats, we had to be extra-cautious,“ said Dasgupta.
While there have been doubts over successful functioning of radio collars in a terrain like Sunderbans, this particular tigress, source said, had to be released with a collar as it had undergone treatment in captivity for almost a yearand-a-half. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) officials had opined that releasing a big cat in the wild after more than a year is fraught with risk. Hence, it was decided to monitor its movement with the help of the collar.
Last year, a tigress -T4 -that was rescued as a cub in Madhya Pradesh's Kanha and later released in Panna Tiger Reserve in the same state died of an infection caused by its radio collar. This was probably the first big cat casualty involving this gadget.
Close on the heels, carcass of another full-grown tigress was found in Bandhavgarh with the radio collar around its neck ripped off.
State wildlife advisory board member, Joydip Kundu, said: “In the first place, I didn't want the tigress to be released in the wild. For conservation in days ahead, it's very important to know the exact reason behind the death.“
Zaidi said the tiger was already weak when it was rescued. Experts wondered why it had to be released then. Another member of the board, Biswajit Roy Chowdhury , said when the tiger was captured it was weak and couldn't even hunt. “Instead of releasing it, the authorities should have done proper investigations to find out why was it so weak,“ he added.
Head of WWF-India's climate change adaptation programme, Anurag Danda, also said that he was not in favour of its release. “The initial health parameters, found after it was rescued, showed that the tigress would never be able to survive in wild. It's biologically good that the tigress has died now. Otherwise, it would have reproduced and passed on its weaknesses to its cubs,“ said Danda, who used to be WWFIndia's Sunderbans chapter head.
Zoo vet D N Banerjee, who had earlier treated the tigress, said: “Probably , the laceration wound caused an infection triggering toxemia -blood poisoning caused by bacterial toxic substances in the blood. “In the Parliament, Berhampore MP Adhir Chowdhury recently questioned the move to radio-collar tigers. He had alleged that the gadgets make it difficult for the tigers to move and hunt freely. But, Union forest minister Prakash Javadekar then said no research could so far prove that radio collars are harmful to tigers.
