Dibrugarh: Two days after a police personnel was killed in a tiger attack, a sub-adult female tiger was found dead with a gunshot injury in the Mayodia area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Dibang Valley district on Thursday, officials said.
Forest officials confirmed that the carcass bore a gunshot wound, raising questions about the circumstances surrounding the animal’s death and whether it was linked to the earlier fatal incident.
On February 2, head constable Chikseng Manpung of the Arunachal Pradesh Police was mauled to death by a tiger while riding his motorcycle through the Mayodia stretch. Manpung, a resident of Manfaiseng village in Namsai district, was posted as a radio operator at Roing Police Station. His mutilated body was recovered the next day following a joint search operation by police and forest department personnel.
Following the incident, the district administration had issued public safety advisories restricting night travel, particularly for two-wheelers, along vulnerable stretches near the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, citing continued tiger movement in the area.
The recovery of the tiger’s body has now triggered a parallel investigation. Forest and police authorities said inquiries are underway to determine how the animal sustained the gunshot injury and whether the killing was retaliatory in nature.
An environmentalist expressed concern over the developments, alleging lapses in wildlife management. “The tiger appears to have been killed by miscreants. Habitat destruction has forced wildlife closer to human settlements. Instead of addressing this, the animal has been shot,” he said, calling for a thorough investigation.
Officials, however, said it was too early to draw conclusions and stressed that forensic examinations and field inquiries were ongoing to establish the sequence of events and any possible links between the two incidents.