Kerala: Rescued tiger who was tranquillized dies, forest minister orders probe

Kannur: A ten-year-old male tiger, which was found entangled in a wire fence at a private farm in Panniyamala at Kottiyoor and later rescued by forest officials after tranquillizing it on the last day, died on Wednesday.

Kerala Forest Minister A. K. Saseedharan asked the Chief Wildlife Warden to conduct an inquiry and submit a detailed report in this regard.

The tiger died on the way to Thrissur Zoo in Kozhikode around midnight, and the carcass was shifted to Pookode Veterinary Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem.

On Tuesday, a rubber-tapping worker, P. Sibi, found the tiger around 0400 AM. While he was on the way to rubber tapping work, he noticed that the tiger was trapped in the wire fence of a private farm, on the side of a narrow road. He alerted the forest officials. Forest officials rushed to the spot and found that one of the hand paws was caught inside the iron wire fence.

The police also blocked the road in the village as part of ensuring security for the people. Around 1100 hrs, veterinary doctor Davidson Abraham from Wayanad district sedated the tiger and then moved it into a cage.

During the medical examination, the doctor found that one of the canine teeth was in a lost condition and noticed the injury in one of the front paws.

Later, forest officials took the tiger, after seeing it as healthy, as part of shifting to a zoo at Thrissur around 2100 hrs, and it died on the way nearby Kozhikode.