Jaipur: Territorial Fight in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (RTR) is a common phenomenon with the young brigade of tigers taking over the park.

On Wednesday morning, an old male tiger T-33 succumbed to his injuries in Chiroli area of the national park. The tiger was about 12-13 years old.

“The tiger that originally had his territory north of the reserve towards Banas and Kailadevi started straying out to other tiger’s territory in the recent past. In a camera trap picture during May-July 2017, he could be seen limping near village Gadhein peripheral territory area indicating that he had been in a territorial Fight probably with T-75 who is a young five year old tiger. Then T-33 had his second fight on the western side in the Khandar area with T-66. But in all probability, T-33 was injured and thrown out of his territory by T-75 that is Sundari’s (T-17) litter,” said Dharmendra Khandal, from Tiger Watch NGO.

According to the forest department, “T-33 was old and after several territorial fights was looking very frail. The injured tiger had moved on the periphery of the forest and was seen around the Khandar town for the past week looking for an easy prey of the cattle. Crowds would gather often to see the tiger. To prevent man-animal conflict the tiger was tranquilized and taken to village Chiroli in the core area. The front left paw was damaged beyond medical intervention and there were canine wounds on the neck. The tiger succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday morning,” said Y K Sahu field director RTR.