Ooty: 10 tigers die in a month; National Tiger Commission team in Nilgiri to probe mysterious deaths

In just over a month, the tranquil Nilgiri forests in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, renowned for their thriving tiger population, have been gripped by a distressing spate of tiger deaths. A team from the National Tiger Commission Crime Branch, led by Inspector General Muralikumar, alongside Central Forest Animal Crime Prevention Unit South Zone Director Kripa Shankar and Central Forest Animal Research Center Senior Scientist Ramesh Krishna Murthy, has descended upon Ooty to probe this unsettling series of fatalities. The loss of ten tigers, including six tiger cubs, within the past 35 days in the Nilgiris district has ignited significant controversy. Compounding the mystery, the forest department has yet to locate the mother tigresses of the deceased tiger cubs, fueling suspicions of potential hunting activities. Normally, mother tigers do not stray more than 200 meters from their cubs, intensifying concerns. Environmentalists harbor suspicions that hunters may be responsible for the disappearance of the mother tiger, prompting calls for an inquiry into tiger deaths in the Mudumalai tiger reserve. The investigative team's mission is to determine the underlying causes of these tiger deaths in the Nilgiri district forest area for this year, with dehydration emerging as one of the identified contributing factors to some of the tragic losses.