The 2-year-old tiger's body has been sent for postmortem examination.
In a shocking incident, the body of a 2-year-old tiger was found hanging from a tree in the Panna Tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
According to forest officials, they were alerted to a male tiger being found dead in the Vikrampur forest on Tuesday night. When the officials reached the spot on Wednesday morning, they found the animal hanging from a tree with a clutch wire (usually found in vehicles) around its neck.
The wire is generally used by poachers to trap animals but officials suspect that the trap may have been laid by the villagers to catch another animal and accidently caught the tiger.
"A dog squad from Satna has reached the scene along with the state Tiger Strike Force. After the findings from the dog squad's initial assessment, we will know the cause of the death. We are asking villagers in the area to come forward and share any information about this incident," said Sanjeev Jha, senior forest conservation official.
The body of the animal has been sent for postmortem to ascertain the cause of death.
Situated in the tiger heartland of Madhya Pradesh, the Panna Tiger Reserve covers an area of 3500 sq km and is home to 15 to 32 tigers in Vindhyan Hills. The national park area also covers nearly 13 villages some of which have been relocated.
Madhya Pradesh has six tiger reserves, namely Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Satpura, Panna and Sanjay Dubri.