Tiger mowed down by train in Satna; big cat death toll hits 28 this year

(Image for representational purposes only)

New Delhi: A speeding train on the Satna-Allahabad track became the cause of death of a tiger in Satna district, around 80 km from Panna Tiger Reserve.

This is the seventh tiger death the state has witnessed over the last three months and the 28th in the year.

Injury marks on its head and left limbs became evidence of the four-year-old tiger's ugly fate. “The tiger was perhaps hit sideways by the train… The left foot seems to have broken and there were some injuries on its head, and its nose was bleeding,” RB Sharma, Satna conservator of forests told Hindustan Times.

The locomotive pilot of the Mahakaushal Express saw the tiger’s body near the track and informed Sharma.

“We reached there around midnight and found that the tiger had died. We shifted the carcass to Satna and conducted its post mortem. We are waiting for a representative of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for its last rites,” he said.

Panna Tiger Reserve field director Vivek Jain told HT that he has sought photographs of the carcass, which will be matched with the stripe data of the reserve in order to ascertain the identity of the tiger. “Unless we match the stripe pattern, I can’t say whether this tiger was from Panna or not”, he said.