Nagpur: Forest officials and wildlife lovers on Thursday pressed the panic button after the radio collar of tiger Shriniwas, son of missing iconic tiger Jai, was found in Nagbhid forest range. Exactly a year ago, a radio-collared Jai had went missing and officials are finding difficult to explain what happened to him.The damaged radio collar with its nuts and bolts missing was found near a nullah between Kothulna and Maushi villages in Nagbhid range on Thursday.Nagbhid range forest officer (RFO) RM Talande confirmed that the collar was of Shriniwas, identified as T10. "The collar, with its two nut bolts missing, has been handed over to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) researchers," he added.The incident has caused panic among forest officials and wildlife lovers. They fear either the collar must have been defective or something untoward must have happened to the tiger.WII scientist Bilal Habib, who fitted the collars to Shriniwas and Bittu, did not respond to TOI calls.Jai's two offspring, Shriniwas and Bittu, were first radio-collared in March 2016. However, as WII claimed that batteries of both the tigers were about to be drained out, the tigers were again tranquillized and collared after 9 months in December 2016. It is surprising how the second collar fell in just over 4 months.Talande says the collar delivered signals on April 19, at 5.30am, indicating that it was working. "We have launched a massive camera trap search in the area where Shriniwas moved," he said.Umred-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary staff has also have been alerted and told to be on the lookout for the tiger.

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