Bor Tiger Reserve’s Dominant Male (T2) Road-killed on NH-6

Anish Andheria


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Chosen as 'Picture of the Week'

In a tragic incident, an adult male tiger from Bor Tiger Reserve falls prey to the killer highway NH-6. Despite repeated appeals by conservationists, no mitigation structures were built on the highway.

During the night of 29-Dec-2017, an adult male tiger T2 from Bor Tiger Reserve fell prey to the killer highway NH-6 that cuts the vital corridor between Bor and Melghat Tiger Reserves in Maharashtra. Despite repeated appeals by conservationists no mitigation structures were built on the highway. Read TOI Nagpur report on the incident. T2, King of Bor (affectionately known as Bajirao), was about 8-years old and in his prime. He often shuttled between Bor and Kalmeshwar, which is a sizeable forest patch, about 20 km as a crow flies from the core of Bor. In fact, our camera trapping exercises in the landscape over the past 4-years indicate that he had an enormous range of nearly 400 sq.km., engulfing a big section of Bor, Kalmeshwar and several multiple use areas around the two forests. Wildlife enthusiasts and conservation biologists blame the apathy and absolute lack of planning by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and inability of the forest department to insist upon mitigation measures such as underpasses on those sections of NH-6 that cut an important wildlife corridor. T2 died while crossing the forested section of the highway, on his way to Bor from Kalmeshwar. With this, the national tally of tiger deaths this year has mounted to 114, of which 24 have been reported from Maharashtra, second highest in the country after neighbouring Madhya Pradesh (26).

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About the author

Anish Andheria

Anish is President of Mumbai-based Wildlife Conservation Trust.



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