The death of a male black tiger on May 1 is the first in 3 decades; there were 8 tigers last reported in the Odisha reserve which is their only home
The rare melanistic tigers with distinctive dark stripe patterns are Bengal big cats with a gene mutation. They are only found in the Simlipal Tiger Reserve. The death of a rare black tiger reported after three decades in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district could have a big impact on the population of the animals, an expert has told Down To Earth (DTE).
The population of black tigers in Similipal is very limited. The death of a male tiger will definitely affect the breeding of tigers in the region, Biswajit Mohanty, a former member of the National Wildlife Board, told DTE.
The carcass of the melanistic male big cat was found in the core areas of the reserve on May 1, 2023. Forest officials said it died due to a territorial fight with another male.
The forest staff at the Badamakkabadi area of the Nawanga range found the carcass of the three-and-half-year-old tiger. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was informed immediately, according to the protocol.
The exact reason for the tiger’s death was not ascertained immediately, but the injury marks on the carcass indicate it might have died while fighting with another big cat inside the sanctuary area, said the state’s principal chief conservator of forests, Sushil Kumar Popli.
Prakash Chandra Gogineni, field director of the reserve, also confirmed that the body was found intact and the preliminary cause of the death is suspected to be infighting between two males.
A post-mortem examination of the carcass was conducted in the presence of the representative of the NTCA, members of the Joint Task Force, Gogineni, deputy director and three assistant conservators of forests of Similipal South and veterinary doctors.
The carcass was then cremated. Samples of the body will be sent to Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar and the Wildlife Institute of India for analysis, according to Popli.
The autopsy report and sample examination should give a clearer picture of the reason for death, said the field director.
Read more: Tiger Census 2022: India’s tiger population increased by 200 in last four years
The rare big cats with distinctive dark stripe patterns are Bengal tigers with a gene mutation and are only found in the region. Simlipal has the world's highest rate of black tiger sightings in the world.
The reserve had last reported eight tigers, according to the Tiger Status Report 2018. Big cats with dark coats, called pseudomelanistic or false coloured, were spotted in camera traps at the reserve.
However, Mohanty rejected the theory that infighting was the cause.
“We are very shocked to know about the death of a rare melanistic tiger inside the core area of Similipal. We doubt the cause of the death is due to infighting,” he said.
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Tigers usually move around and decide their territory. Infighting among tigers occurs over territory. Since Similipal has enough space spreading over 3,000 square kilometres, they might not be fighting over their territory, he said.
“In the recent past, there have been no reports of infighting between the tigers in Similipal for territory,” Mohanty added, demanding a high-level inquiry into the tiger’s death inside the reserve area.
SS Srivastav, member of the NTCA, said they are awaiting the state government’s report. “Our representative was there during the post-mortem. He will also report to the authority about the tiger’s death,” he said.
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Black tigers were first officially recorded in the forests of Similipal in 1975-76, when forest officials along with two foreign tourists saw two full-grown black tigers on the road leading to Matughar meadow on a bright winter day, according to Lala Aswini Kumar Singh, a tiger expert.
“The subject came to acquire a scientific foothold when a melanistic tiger got killed in self defense in July 1993,” Singh said in his book on Born Black: The Melanistic Tiger in India.
The tigers in the Similipal Tiger Reserve are an isolated population in eastern India and gene flow between them and other tiger populations is very restricted, a 2021 study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences had found.
This has important implications for tiger conservation as such isolated and inbred populations are prone to extinction over even short periods of time, it further said.
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