The stench in the Pench was not enough

While patrolling in the  Pench Tiger Reserve  on  20th Oct 2010 at 9 am  the foul smell led to the discovery of a decomposed body of  a Tigress at 11: 40 am near west Murer Forest camp no 391 A. said Dr K. Nayak Director Pench Tiger Reserve. 


The decomposed body was found by the Forest and security guards 500 meteres from the road about a kilometer from forest guard camp. Surprisingly all these days the forest reserve was not filled with stench of a decomposed body.


Postmortem  was conducted  by Dr Akhilesh Sharma in presence of Director , Asst Director and Director Pench Mowgli reserve on 21st Oct 2010. The report confirms the decomposed body is not more than 30 days old, crack in the back side of the skull, puncture in the forehead, one inch gap in the lower vertebrae and other injuries..so the conclusion is death of a "Tigress due to Territorial fight."


I ask ...

• A tiger died and no one in the reserve detected the body?
• Couldn't they smell in the last 30 days the decomposed body?
• The stench of the dead body of a carnivores can be smelt for miles.
• The decomposed body  infact SKELETON was found near the forest camp. What were the officers doing in all those days?
• The body was not in a condition where the reason for the death could be ascertained just by looking at it as Pench Director claims after seeing the damaged skull and vertebrae.
• The forensic report should be checked before declaring the reason.
• Can the death be due to poisoning as the villagers are active there.
• Territorial infighting  has become  often repeated reason of Forest officials
• Between Jan 2009 and Oct 2010 10 tiger deaths caused due to territorial fights are reported which raise main eyebrows.

A dead cub was found  in July this year burnt after its paws were chopped off for some tantric ritual at the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. It is found that the killing was done by forest caretakers along with a member of the village Eco-development committee.

The Pench Tiger Reserve is named after the Pench river, which flows from north to south through the Reserve. The Reserve is located in the southern reaches of the Satpura hill ranges in the Seoni and Chhindwara districts in Madhya Pradesh . The terrain is undulating, with most of the area covered by small hill ranges, steeply sloping on the sides.

The Reserve is situated in an area that holds a significant place in the natural history of Central India. The description of its natural beauty, richness in flora and fauna has appeared in numerous wildlife books dating back to 17th century. The area of the present tiger reserve has a glorious history. A description of its natural wealth and richness occurs in Ain-i-Akbari. Several natural history books like R. A. Strendale's 'Seonee - Camp life in Satpura Hills,' Forsyth's 'Highlands of Central India' and Dunbar Brander's 'Wild Animals of Central India' explicitly present the detailed panorama of nature's abundance in this tract.

Books written in the 19th and early 20th century by famous naturalists like Captain J. Forsyth and Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book explicitly present the detailed panorama of nature's abundance in this tract.Kipling was inspired to write his memorable book by the luxuriant forest cover of Pench teeming with an astonishing variety of wildlife.The Pench Tiger Reserve and its neighbourhood is the original setting of Rudyard Kipling's most famous work, The Jungle Book. Kipling borrowed heavily from Robert Armitage Strendale's books 'Seonee', 'Mammalia of India and Ceylon' and 'Denizens of the Jungle' for the topography, wildlife, and its ways. Mowgli was inspired by Sir William Henry Sleeman's pamphlet, 'An Account of Wolves Nurturing Children in Their Dens' which describes a wolf-boy captured in Seoni district near the village of Sant Baori in 1831. Many of The Jungle Book's locations are actual locations in Seoni District, like the Waingunga river with its gorge where Sherkhan was killed, Kanhiwara villlage and the 'Seeonee hills'.

Pench Tiger Reserve was created in 1992, becoming 19th Reserve in the Project Tiger network. The core zone of the Reserve, Pench National Park was created in 1983. This was carved out of the Pench Sanctuary created in 1977 with an area of 449.39 sq. km. The area of the Park is 292.85 sq. km., which is divided almost equally in two districts - 145.36 sq. km. in Seoni and 147.28 sq. km. in Chhindwara. The area in Seoni is all Reserve Forest whereas the area in Chhindwara includes 138.24 sq. km. Reserve forests, 6.26 sq. km. Protected Forests and 2.78 sq. km. revenue land. The buffer zone, 465 sq. km., comprises of 333.05 sq. km. of R.F., 102.36 sq. km. of P.F. and 29.59 sq. km. of revenue land. The total area of the reserve is 757.86 sq. km.