Sundarbans tigress wasn’t killed by poachers: Probe body

A tigress, found dead in Sundarbans East Zone on 20 August, was not killed by poachers, investigators have confirmed, reports news agency UNB.

However, the probe committee, formed by the forest department, is yet to specify the cause of the death.

The three-member committee submitted its report to the divisional forest officer on Monday night, said its chief Md Joynal Abedin.

Samples collected from the carcass of the tiger are being tested at the laboratories of the forest department and CID (Criminal Investigation Department) to determine the actual cause of the animal’s death, said Kanak Roy, the senior lab technician of Wildlife Crime Control Unit.

Lab reports will clarify the cause of death. “They’ll be released in the first week of September,” he said.

On 20 August, the forest department workers recovered the carcass of a tigress from Chhaprakhali area under Sharankhola range of the Sundarbans East Zone.

The forest department said they had counted 114 tigers on the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans through camera trapping. Twenty-one tigers have died between 2001 and 20 August, according to official data.