Tiger poached in Pench Tiger Reserve, 3 held
   Date :30-Nov-2022

Pench Tiger Reserve 
 
 
Staff Reporter
A tiger was poached in Nagalwadi Range of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR). The caracass was found on Monday evening. Pravin R Lele, Range Forest Officer, Nagalwadi (UC), got information from informers about tiger poaching and disposal of body parts.
Acting swiftly the field staff of Nagalwadi Range and Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) rushed to the spot and searched the entire area of Surewani lake which is under the jurisdiction of Irrigation Department.
The team recovered decomposed body parts, paws and other body remains from the spot. On the basis of tip-off, the investigating team also arrested three accused from Surewani village. The post-mortem of the carcass took place on Tuesday. Autopsy findings have concluded that the tiger was poached. This year, so far, three tiger deaths were reported in PTR, Maharashtra, in which one died due to natural death, one due to accident and this one due to poaching.
Further investigation is going on under the guidance of A Sreelakshmi, Conservator of Forest and Field Director, PTR; Prabhu Nath Shukla, Deputy Director, PTR; Kiran Patil, Assistant Conservator of Forest (West Pench); Sachin Athawale, Range Forest Officer (Khapa Territorial); P S Khandare, AM FDCM; and Sudarshan Bhat, Range Forest Officer. A team of Superintendent of Police, Nagpur (Rural) provided support for forensic evidence collection.
The post-mortem as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines took place by Dr Sujith Kolangat, of Wildlife Research and Training Centre, Gorewada; Dr Mayur Pawashe, WRTC Gorewada; under the observation of Ajinkya Bhatkar, Wildlife Warden, Nagpur and NTCA representative; Mandar Pingle of Satpuda Foundation as representative of PCCF (Wildlife); Udhamsingh Yadav, Honorary Wildlife Warden; Dr Amit Lohkare, LDO Kothulna; Dr Gaurav Baraskar, LDO Nanda Gomukh; Dr Sudarshan Kakade, Transit Treatment Centre, Nagpur; Dr Pankaj Thorat, TTC Nagpur; and Dr Harshita Raghav of WRTC were also present during the post-mortem.
The last rites of the carcass were performed on Tuesday.