2 tigers die after consuming poisoned cow carcass in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, farm labourer held

According to forest officials, the arrested identified as Sekar, 60, admitted to having smeared insecticide on the carcass of his cow that was mauled to death by the tigers, as an act of revenge.

“After knowing his cow had been killed, he came to the spot and mixed insecticide in some leftover parts of the cattle in the nearby area hoping that the tigers would come again to eat them,” the officer said.

According to officials, local field workers alerted them around 4.30 pm on September 9 that two tigers were found dead near the Avalanche dam. The officials on reaching the spot found one of the tigers dead in the surplus water area and another one a few metres away in a bushy area. They also found the decomposed carcass of a cow lying nearby.

The officials said a 20-member team has been formed to probe the incident.

The samples of the carcass were sent for forensic analysis. As per the initial investigation, there were no injury marks on the deceased tigers and hence the officials suspected that the animals could have been poisoned about two days ago.

“We asked the officials to find out if there had been any complaints of cattle missing in the surrounding areas. After going through the list, we found that one person had complained that his cow had gone missing. We showed him the photographs of the dead cow with the tag around its neck, and it was confirmed that it belonged to Sekar,” the officer said.

The forest department booked Sekar under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act and arrested him on Monday evening.

The senior official noted that this is the first time they have come across this kind of incident where a wild animal is killed by lacing insecticide in some parts of the carcass of a cattle.

“We have been conducting awareness campaigns and sensitizing people in the villages about how they could adapt behavioural changes in their daily life that would help them avoid conflict situations with wild animals. So far, 15 such camps have been conducted,” the officer added.