2 tigers kill female rhino in Dudhwa

Pilibhit: In a rare incident, a female one-horned rhinoceros, known by the name Rajeshwari, was overpowered and killed by two tigers in Sonaripur forest range of Rhino Rehabilitation Enclosure-I in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), possibly on Wed morning.A half-submerged rhino carcass floating in ‘Amha Tal' was spotted by a forest team around 7.30am on Thursday, and to their surprise, one of the two predators was still perched on the herbivore.Principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) of UP, Anuradha Vemuri, told TOI: "There has been a rise in the number of cases where tigers have been found attacking rhinos, especially the calves, in DTR over the past year. In this case, tigers preyed on the rhino and fed on its soft tissues of the throat area... Pug marks of two tigers were found.""The cause of such behaviour remains unclear though," Vemuri said, adding, "The rhino was supposedly 30-years-old. Female rhino's longevity in the wild is normally 35-40 years. So, in this attack, the rhino was too old to defend itself. Tiger behaviour has also changed over the years largely due to encroachment of human habitats into forest areas, tourist safaris, more development works in villages on DTR's outskirts along with their increasing population and territorial factors.""As part of a standard operating procedure (SOP), a panel of three veterinary officers led by DTR's Dr Mohammad Talah has been set up to conduct the autopsy," added H Rajamohan, the field director of DTR.Notably, this was the third death case of one-horned rhinos in DTR since Aug last year. In that month, an aggressive male rhinoceros had killed a four-year-old male rhino calf. This raging pachyderm then critically injured an eight-month-old female calf on Jan 24, which died four days later. After the latest incident, the greater one-horned rhino's population in DTR is now 49, as per the official data.