A five-year-old tiger was allegedly killed by poachers who stole the animal's nails in Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, officials said on Friday.
Chief Forest Conservator of Kumaon Division, Dheeraj Pandey, said that on January 8 women from the forest panchayat area of Dhakna Badola in Champawat city reported that a tiger was found dead in the forest.
The forest department team arrived at the scene and found that the nails from two of the tiger's paws had been removed, he said.
Pandey further said that the tiger was not killed by a gunshot and that it is suspected the animal was poisoned.
This suggests the involvement of professional hunters, he explained.
The post-mortem of the tiger has been completed, and veterinarians have taken a sample of its viscera to determine the cause of death.
According to Pandey arrangements are being made to send the viscera samples to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Uttar Pradesh and the Indian Wildlife Institute in Dehradun for DNA testing.
Following the incident, Additional Chief Forest Conservator (Wildlife) Vivek Pandey issued an advisory, instructing all forest divisions of Uttarakhand to increase surveillance in the forest areas.
Meanwhile, the state's Forest Minister, Subodh Uniyal, took strict cognizance of the matter and directed forest officials to solve the case soon.
Uniyal said that if the forest department requires assistance from the state police or intelligence agencies, it should be sought, but the hunters must be caught at any cost.
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