TIKAPUR, June 21: A Royal Bengal tiger that was found dead in Janashakti Community Forest in Tikapur Municipality-2 of Kailali has been secretly buried. According to a source, a team deployed from the Bardiya National Park (BNP) had put pressure on them not to make the incident public.
A participant said that the team asked everyone present at the scene not to take a photo of the dead tiger. He said that the team didn’t want the news of the dead tiger to be reported on social media. “Bengal tigers are some of the rare animals in the world. The news of a tiger found dead should not be published anywhere. Otherwise, we will get in trouble,” said the chairman of a community forest. “If the news gets published, you might get in trouble as well.”
Human-Tiger Coexistence Amidst Rising Tiger Population
Mohammed Taha Hussain Mikrani, chief of the Sub-Divisional Forest Office, Tikapur, said that the team didn’t approve of taking pictures. According to a report prepared by the Division Forest Office, the tiger was about 12 years old. “A12-year-old male Royal Bengal tiger was found dead in a bamboo bush with a metal wire around its neck,” the report said.
"The tiger had a clutch wire of a motorcycle around its neck, along with a three feet long piece of wood," Mikrani said. “Maybe the tiger was caught in a trap somewhere and later was strangled to death in Betghari.” The team from the BNP had buried the tiger after a report was made in the presence of representatives of the Division Forest Office, Tikapur, community forest chairpersons, ward chairpersons and the police.
A team from BNP had reached the community forest on Sunday afternoon in search of the tiger, which was tracked by GPS. A team of four including National Natural Conservation Fund technician Firulal Tharu and park scout Naresh Bikram Chaudhary found the tiger dead.
According to BNP, there were only 18 Royal Bengal tigers in 2009. According to the latest statistics, there are 235 tigers in Nepal including 87 in Bardiya, 93 in Chitwan, 21 in Banke, 18 in Parsa and 16 in Shuklaphanta National Park.
