Orang, Assam : In yet another incident of retaliatory killing, two tigers, a sub-adult male and another, whose gender could not be identified, were poisoned in the Orang National Park by angry villagers. The tigers had reportedly been preying on their cattle and the villagers were enraged by the frequency of these attacks.

The tigers died after consuming poisoned domestic buffalo carcass, which is believed to have been killed by their mother from a nearby village and dragged into the protected area. The villagers possibly sprayed poison on the carcass in the absence of the predator. The two tigers were discovered

dead inside the national park, close to Bhabapur village on October 2 and October 4 respectively. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (wildlife) in Assam, MC Malakar, expressed his concern saying, “despite a number of conservation awareness programmes and compensations whenever possible, the villagers have been avenging the attacks on their cattle”.

According to S. Momin, the Divisional Forest Officer, the tigers belonged to a litter of four, and a search has been initiated to ascertain the status of the other two and the mother. He claimed to have heard the distress calls of the mother on October 6, but no further deaths have been confirmed. An

investigation is also being undertaken to catch those responsible. The owner of the buffalo and a few others are under suspicion, but no legal proceedings have been initiated against them yet, stated the officer. He added that the organs of the dead animals have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Guwahati to determine the poison used and the exact cause of death.

Orang National Park, like in other protected areas in Assam, has been suffering due to strikes and dharnas by the dominant number of temporary (casual) staff who has been demanding permanency in their jobs. The PCCF (wildlife), however, denied that these internal problems could be blamed for

the incident.