VADODARA/AHMEDABAD/ BHOPAL: The epic 300 km-long journey of a Madhya Pradesh tiger to Gujarat ended on Tuesday with recovery of its decomposed carcass. Last week, MP forest officials had written to Gujarat to “take care of it”. Sources in MP forest department suspect the tiger was poisoned.The carcass was found in a forest area of Mahisagar district on Tuesday. Vadodara chief conservator of forests S K Shrivastava told TOI that the tiger was found dead around 12km from the place where it was clicked the last time on camera trap last week.Rajeev Gupta, additional chief secretary, forests and environment, told TOI, “As per the primary information that we have received, the tiger died two or three days ago. However, all four legs and its claws were intact and there are no injury marks.”The viscera and other body parts have been sent to for forensic tests to ascertain the cause of death, Gupta said. Though he ruled out poaching, Gupta said the department is looking into the possibility of death by poisoning. “But this will be clear only after the viscera examination,” he added.Initial reports suggested that one of the front legs of the tiger was missing, raising strong suspicion of poaching.The male tiger was around 5-7 years old and had crossed over into Gujarat from Ratapani forests in adjoining Madhya Pradesh. It was on February 6 that a local schoolteacher photographed it crossing the road near Boriya village — giving lion country Gujarat the unique distinction of having a tiger too.Analysis of stripes confirmed it was a tiger from Ratapani, said MP forest officials.It triggered a wave of excitement in Gujarat . The forest department installed trap cameras following the sighting and it was clicked in one of the cameras around 2km from Santrampur on February 12.Since the local population as well as forest department officials did not have any experience in handling a tiger, a massive awareness drives for its employees as well; as villagers was carried out. Fearing that poachers may be seeing an opportunity to kill the tiger, the department had stepped up its interaction with villagers and had asked them to inform officials in case they saw any suspicious person. Villagers were also advised that they should not disclose the location of the tiger to anyone.

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