The discovery of a seemingly stale carcass of a cow in Hugyam forest range in Mahadeshwara Hills on Friday strengthens the doubt that the death of a tigress and her four cubs could be due to poisoning, officials said.
These five tigers were found dead in this forest on Thursday.
It is suspected that the miscreants had poisoned the cow, and after eating it, the tigress and its cubs might have died.
“Either the bovine was poisoned before being left in the forest, or the owner of the cattle, after spotting the dead cow, would have spread poison on its body, which the tigress and her cubs ate and died,” the officer said.
Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre too backed the same theory.
He said someone might have poisoned the cattle, which led to the death of the big cats.
“Our government has taken the matter very seriously, and we will investigate it from all angles. We will not spare those behind it,” Khandre told reporters.
While the autopsy on the mother tigress was done on Thursday itself, the postmortem on the four cubs was underway on Friday, the forest officials said.