Two tigers at Ranthambore National Park die in suspected territorial fight
The national park has recorded four deaths in April.
Two tigers were found dead at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan on Tuesday. Forest officials suspect that they died in a territorial fight, PTI reported. A postmortem will be conducted on Wednesday to find the cause of the death.
The tigers, both aged a little over a year, were from the litter of tigress T-79. They were found dead at Awand-ki-Khad of Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary in the park on Tuesday.
Field director of the park, YK Sahu, said they were apparently killed by another male tiger, according to PTI. The two tigers lived with their mother and the male tiger intruded into their territory, according to the website of Ranthambore National Park. The tiger may have wanted to mate with the tigress and attacked the young ones, seeing them as an obstruction, according to the national park.
Forest department officials said the carcasses have been kept at Kundal Naka near Rajbagh Choki of the park.
Territorial disputes are on the rise in the park because of an increase in the tiger population. The park has nearly 70 tigers, including cubs. The population is almost double the capacity of a national park, forest officials said.
With the death of the two young tigers, the national park has recorded four tiger deaths in a month.
On March 20, a four-year-old male tiger brought to Ranthambore from Sariska wildlife reserve, ST-11, became entangled in a barbed wire fence laid out by a poacher. The big cat was later found dead in an agriculture field. A day later, another male tiger died in Ranthambore after it was tranquilised while being rescued from a village on the periphery of the park.