Nearly three days after two tigers and a cow were found dead near the Avalanche dam in The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu forest officials arrested a farmer who allegedly poisoned one of the animals to death. During the interrogation, he revealed that he poisoned the carcass of his cow in order to target the animal that killed his cattle. Based on the post-mortem, the officials said that one of the tigers died after consuming the poisoned cow while another tiger died due to infighting.
The arrested farmer has been identified as Shekhar of Emerald Village, rears cows and goats, was arrested and later remanded to judicial custody, news agency IANS reported.
The investigation revealed that Sekar had targeted the animal that killed his cow. He had reportedly applied pesticide on the cow's carcass and plotted against the carnivore to feed on the 'poisoned' meat.
The officials told The New Indian Express that the eight-year-old tiger might have fed on the poisoned cow meat. Later, it might have killed a three-year-old tiger in a territorial fight before its death.
However, the officials await a detailed forensic analysis report to ascertain the exact cause of death.
The carcass of a cow was also found near the carcasses of the tiger. The Nilgiris District Forest Officer S Gowtham told media persons that the tigers would have consumed the meat of the carcass before their deaths.
After the carcasses of two tigers aged three and eight years were found on Saturday evening, the forest department commenced a probe and conducted the post-mortem. A team of 20 forest personnel was formed by the Nilgiris forest division to probe the death. The department carried out a forensic analysis of the samples of the two tiger carcasses as well as the carcass of the cattle and is awaiting the report.
On August 17, a tigress was found dead in Madumalai Tiger Reserve. Two cubs were found dead in Sigur range. A seven-year-old tiger was also found dead in a private tea estate in The Nilgiris. Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials told IANS that the adult tigers could have died due to infighting while the cubs died as they could not survive in the forest after their mother abandoned them.