How Did Amravati Maneater Tigress Die? Mystery Deepens

The death of the maneater tigress may have come as a relief to thousands of Amravati residents, who were terrorised for the last two weeks, but it raised multiple questions on what exactly went wrong from the time it was tranquilised till the time of its death. Forest officials say only the medical reports can now answer all queries.The drama started on Monday when the maneater made its third and final kill in Morshi taluka , but stayed back near the body. Huge crowds from neighbouring villages started gathering and soon one of the tranquilising teams, which was hot on the tigress' trail, reached the site.The tigress's previous two kills had already led to a law-and-order situation; in turn, political pressure was piling up on the forest department . State forest minister Ganesh Naik directed officials to ensure the tigress was rescued immediately, which led to multiple teams being formed to track her down.That face-off happened on Monday at Chandur Bazaar and the big cat was tranquilised. The plan was to shift the tigress to Nagpur's Gorewada Wildlife Research and Training Centre for long-term care, but before the three-hour road trip began, the big cat had to be revived from her sedative state.Jayoti Banerjee, chief conservator of forests, said the tigress was taken to a forest department facility nearby for the same, but it died.In Amravati, rumours swelled: this was a case of an overdose, while some said the tigress was ill.Shrinivas Reddy, PCCF(Wildlife), said there was no intention to kill the tigress, and medical reports would clarify its condition. 'I was told the tigress was suffering from some disease. In fact, I was supposed to give orders to kill it by gun on Monday, but when I was informed it had been tranquilized, I withheld my orders,' said Reddy.A senior forest official said multiple teams had to be roped in from outside Amravati due to unavoidable reasons. 'A team from Amravati was working almost non-stop for the last many days and that left it fatigued and one was hospitalized,' the official said.What killed the tigress is now under investigation. Banerjee said, 'On Tuesday morning, the autopsy will be done; blood and tissue and other samples will be taken for forensic analysis. These will form the basis for detailed reports, which will tell us whether the tigress was suffering from some other ailments.' A decision on the tigress's cremation will be taken after the autopsy, with toxicology findings expected to take the longest among the reports, due within a week.