India: Dinesh is said to be a habitual offender who He has cases against him for timber smuggling. He has good clout with people in the local haadis, who are under his influence and tend to be hostile towards the department, according to sources.

While initial reports indicate that the tiger was snared, senior officials, who visited the spot, said the carcass of the tiger or the skin did not betray any snare or bullet wound and investigation was on to ascertain the modus operandi of the killing.

This is the ninth tiger death reported from Karnataka since January this year, but the first definitive case of poaching. Incidentally, two other tigers also died due to snare injuries though the snares were laid to trap the marauding boars around agricultural fields and farms on the periphery of the national park.

But the latest death in what is suspected to be induced poaching, has occurred in the core of Nagarahole, which is also the junction of Kalahalla, Metikuppe, Nagarahole and Antharsanthe ranges, and has raised serious concerns over protection.

Officials point out that there have been as many as 11 incidents of fire in the D.B. Kuppe range in the last 48 hours, which were immediately put out while a herd of deer were found dead on Thursday. “All manpower has been deployed to prevent forest fires which now seem to be deliberately stoked to divert attention to strike at animals,” suspected an official.

(Source: The Hindu)