(IN) Tiger swallowed King Cobra, in Sunderbans

July 22, 2009

Dead tiger in Sunderbans had swallowed king cobra

PTI 19 July 2009, 07:06pm IST

NEW DELHI: The 14-year-old tiger that was found dead two days ago in Sunderbans

of West Bengal had swallowed two snakes, including a venomous king cobra, before

it succumbed to liver infection, a senior state forest official said.

" It was a startling revelation for us when we found the pieces of the snakes

inside the tiger's stomach. One of them was a king cobra while another was a

commonly found reptile species, " Atanu Kumar Raha, principal chief conservator

of forests (PCCF) of West Bengal, said.

It is probably for the first time that a tiger having consumed poisonous

reptiles like cobra has come to the knowledge of wildlife officials, Raha said.

He said hostile ecological conditions make the Sunderban predators more hardy

and agile when compared to their counterparts in other reserves. " As the

predator was aged, it might be possible that it could not hunt carnivorous

animals. "

The official ruled out that the big cat's death was due to snake venom or

poaching as there was no injury mark neither any gunshot on its body.

" It had died due to some bacterial infection in its liver that might have

deteriorated after consuming the reptiles. Cobra hoods were found to be intact

while there were pieces of body part of snakes in the big cat's viscera. "

Besides Raha, other Sunderban Tiger Reserve officials and World Wildlife Fund

(WWF)'s Anurag Banda who was appointed as nominee by the National Tiger

Conservation Authority (NTCA) were present during the post-mortem of the animal.

As per NTCA guidelines, the post-mortem has to be conducted in the presence of

its nominee.

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