A rabid dog bit a tiger cub in Panna Tiger Reserve on September 10 and got away with it, forest department officials have said. According to foresters, the dog bit two people in villages near the forest. It later wandered into the forest and on being confronted, attacked a three-year old tiger cub.
Field director Sreenivasa Murthy cited a report from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory, Jabalpur to confirm that the dog was rabid.
“The tiger was put in an enclosure and administered anti-rabies vaccine. The dog was later reportedly killed by villagers. There is now no threat to wildlife or the general public,” he told reporters.
Last month, two tigresses in Panna gave birth to three cubs each. One of the tigresses was an orphan, which has spent most of her life in an enclosure in Kanha National Park. She was translocated to Panna in 2009 after the reserve lost all its big cats.