By IANS
Jaipur : A tiger cub, injured last month and returned to its mother after forest officials nursed it back to health, has been found dead in Rajasthan's Ranthambore National Park.
"The dead body of the cub was found around 10 a.m. Monday while forest guards were on their routine tracking exercise in Khandar range of the park," said Sudarshan Sharma, a forest official.
He said the cub was the same that along with two others had fallen into a dry 20 ft step well in the park on May 23. Forest officials had found the three cubs in the step well during a regular surveillance and tracking trip.
Two of the cubs were declared dead after a medical check-up. They were cremated after the post mortem.
The cub, which died Monday, was about three months old at the time of the step well incident and had sustained injuries. "At that time we treated the injured cub and when it looked perfectly fine we left it with its mother," said Sharma.
Forest officials said the cub was hale and hearty and are puzzled about how it died within 26 days of the incident. "We are trying to ascertain the cause and would conduct a post mortem", Sharma said.
The Ranthambore National Park, situated in the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan, over 175 km from here, covers an area of around 400 sq km. The park's abandoned fortress, lakes and above all its tigers have made it one of the finest wildlife reserves in the world.
Ranthambore was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1957 and in 1974 became part of the Project Tiger programme. It got the status of a National Park in 1981.
According to the latest census, the tiger population in Ranthambore is 32, higher than the 26 counted in the 2005 census. The latest census does not include the cubs whose population is estimated at 13. Forest officials claim that these three cubs were not part of the 13 counted.