Patna, June 28: The mystery surrounding the death of a tigress in Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in Bihar has remained unresolved, over a year after the matter came to light.

As things stand now, VTR officials are waiting for the forensic report from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, where the viscera sample of the animal was sent for examination.

“We had sent the sample around three months ago and I have directed the divisional forest officer to send a reminder to WII requesting for the forensic report,” VTR director J.P. Gupta told The Telegraph.

VTR officials were forced to seek a second opinion about the forensic report as the state forensic report had negated the theory of the death of the animal because of poisoning.

After recovery of the tigress’s body from Madanpur range of the reserve on March 11 last year, the VTR officials had claimed that it appeared to a be case of poisoning.

This conclusion was arrived at because there were no injury marks when it was dug out. Moreover, all its vital organs as well as nails and teeth were intact. “Had poachers killed the animal this would not have been the case,” the officials had claimed.

Moreover, the body of the tigress was recovered only after some locals raised an alarm after few people were trying to bury it. Poachers generally do not bury their prey instead they take out the vital parts of their body and its skin.

The officials had suspected the death of the tigress as a result of man-animal confrontation as the cadaver of a cow was found from near the body of the big cat.

Just after the incident, VTR officials claimed that villagers might have poisoned the cow’s cadaver to avenge its killing and the tiger died after consuming the cadaver.

Apart from failing to get the correct information about the reason behind the death of the tigress, VTR officials are also in the dark about the people responsible for the unnatural death of the tigress.

Though two persons — Nanku Choudhary, a fire-watcher, and Umesh Patel, a tiger tracker — were arrested in connection with this case. Both of them had since been released on bail as the forest officials failed to provide concrete evidences to support the allegations levelled against the two.

A senior forest department official, at the state headquarters, said the VTR officials could not be held responsible for laxity on the investigation front. “It was decided that the case would be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department. The forest department also sent a formal request in this regard to the government around six months ago. However, no decision has been taken on this issue,” he said.