A lone tiger, often spotted on camera traps in the protected Gautala Autramghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra state India, has been thought to have been killed by poachers after disappearing from footage.
The only tiger in the park, known as Walker II, was often spotted on camera traps placed near water holes in the sanctuary, and was last seen on February 27. A couple of days after Walker II was last spotted, forest department officials caught a group of poachers with the remains of multiple wild animals.
The lack of any fresh sighting of the tiger, even near the water holes – which are the only source of drinking water for wild animals – on the camera traps has sparked concern among conservationists.
Rajesh Thombare, the honorary wildlife warden for Jalgaon district, said a thorough investigation is needed to expose the poaching threat. “It is suspected that the poachers also killed a tiger and a leopard along with other wild animals. They smuggled the tiger and leopard’s body parts with the help of a woman accomplice. However, no woman has been made an accused in the poaching case so far.”
When contacted by The Times of India, forest department authorities refuted the claims of tiger poaching in the sanctuary. “Going by past experiences, trap cameras may or may not spot the tiger,” said a senior forest department official. “We are waiting for reports from a Nagpur-based lab where body parts and carcasses of wild animals hunted by poachers are sent for analysis.”
Walker II wandered into the sanctuary in March 2021, and had almost no contact with humans, but had regularly been captured on the many camera traps that monitor the wildlife in the park.
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