Guwahati, Jan. 1: The Assam forest department is looking to acquire a portion of a Tata-owned tea estate near Kaziranga National Park to protect wild animals from exposure to killer pesticides.

Animal carcasses have been found amid tea bushes in the Rongagora division of the Hathikuli estate, part of Tata Tea’s North India Plantation Operations, in recent months.

On Saturday, a Royal Bengal Tiger cub was found dead, two days after another had been found semi-conscious. The cubs are believed to have consumed cattle carcasses laced with pesticides.

Chief conservator of forests (wildlife) M.C. Malakar met park officials on Sunday to draft a proposal to acquire the garden’s Rongagora division.

Wild animals often stray into the tea estate, which forms part of a corridor from Kaziranga to the Karbi Anglong hills. Animal traffic through the corridor increases when flood waters inundate the park.

Malakar had in a meeting last week requested the garden management not to use high doses of pesticide.

Tea estate manager Joydeep Singh said his company was aware of its responsibilities and had decided to convert the 470-hectare garden into an organic plantation. “As of now, we have 160 hectares under organic cultivation but we have decided to go for total organic production by next year. We have a responsibility towards Kaziranga.”

Kaziranga straddles two districts, Golaghat and Nagaon, and is 217km from Guwahati. Although its most famous resident is the one-horned rhino, it is home to several other endangered species.

Samples of the cattle flesh the tiger cubs are believed to have consumed have been sent to the State Forensic Laboratory in Guwahati for tests.

Malakar said the forest department would take legal action against the garden if pesticides were found.

The park management has already filed a case against the Hathikuli tea estate at the Kohora outpost.

The divisional forest officer of Kaziranga, Bankim Sharma, said the only way to protect animals from exposure to chemicals used in tea production was to acquire the Rongagora division.

Sharma said a garden worker who lost cattle in a tiger attack recently sprayed pesticides on a half-eaten carcass.

“A bottle containing pesticides was found at the site. It would not have been possible for the worker to get hold of a small amount of pesticide unless he had smuggled it out of the estate’s storeroom. This indicates the management is still using pesticides,” he said.

The estate manager did not rule out a worker spraying pesticides to poison tigers, but said the company had nothing to do with it.