While the controversy over the killing of man-eating tigress Avni at Yavatmal is simmering, the state forest department has unearthed a suspected case of tiger poaching and smuggling of wildlife products in and around the Melghat tiger reserve (MTR) in Amravati. State forest department officials told DNA that a "minimum of six people" were arrested in multiple cases that are being investigated by officials from the MTR and the neighbouring territorial forest division. "Arrests have been made and investigations are on... This is a suspected case of tiger poaching. The species and numbers are being confirmed," said a senior MTR official, adding they had leads for a poaching case inside the reserve in 2013. The time lapse made it tough to recover evidence, he admitted. "We have made some recoveries. The recovered material is being sorted and will be sent for forensic analysis," the official said. Tiger body parts command huge prices in the international market. He added in August, some forest guards had chanced on a group of people inside the tiger reserve. This group had attacked them and fled while leaving behind Safed Musli, which is used as a libido enhancer, and some meat suspected to be that of a porcupine, which like the tiger, is a Schedule-I species accorded the highest grade of protection under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. One suspect was arrested in the case and next month, when forest staff when to a village to arrest people named by the accused, they were stoned, leading to the department filing a FIR with the police. "The police picked up some people. We took their custody on a production warrant," the official said, adding that they had spilled the beans during questioning. Tiger Census According to the tiger census, results for which were released in 2014, India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. Maharashtra has around 190 such big cats, more than the figure of 169 in 2010. This increased to 203 in the phase-IV camera trapping exercise in 2014-15. Maharashtra has six tiger reserves, namely Tadoba Andhari, Pench, Bor, Sahyadri, Melghat and Navegaon Nagzira and a healthy number of tigers outside protected areas (PA) as well.

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