The National Tiger Conservation Authority, which had approved the transfer of six tigers from the wild of Madhya Pradesh to Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha, has suspended the tiger translocation project pending a detailed review. The decision was taken after the first big cat, a male Royal Bengal tiger that had been translocated from Kanha tiger reserve in MP to Satkosia in Angul in June this year, was found dead in core area of the forest on Wednesday.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Sandip Tripathy, who had rushed to the spot on Wednesday, said the tiger monitoring team had found the male tiger at a spot 500 meters from Raigoda to Nuagada forest road inside the Nuagarh forest reserve of Athagarh forest division.

According to preliminary findings, it had a five-day-old deep wound and had developed infection near the dorsal neck region.

Divisional Forest Officer P Ramasamy has been asked to investigate the matter.

READ | Kanha tiger translocated to Odisha’s Satkosia reserve in June is dead

“A team to conduct post-mortem examination of the tiger carcass has been constituted by Field Director, Satkosia Tiger Reserve, comprising government veterinarian doctors, representatives of NTCA, local NGO and others in accordance with the SOP by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The disposal of carcass through incineration will be carried out in presence of the veterinarian team and others as per the NTCA protocol,” said the forest authorities.

Tripathy said the cause of the injury would be known after the post-mortem report was submitted.

The site of incident was not disturbed as per the NTCA protocol.

The death of the tiger is saddening as it was the first ever attempt in the country to translocate tigers wild to wild from one state to another.

Odisha had also procured a tigress from Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh and it was released into the Satkosia forest. But it had to be tracked and tranquilised following public outrage and allegations that it had killed two people.

The forest department here has been facing a tough time of late with seven elephants electrocuted due to sagging electric lines last month in Dhenkanal district and another tusker getting killed in a similar fashion on Wednesday in Mayurbhanj district.

Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has written to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking his immediate intervention to prevent elephant deaths. The CM is set to review the situation.