An eight-year-old striped hyena, believed to be one of less than 30 individuals inhabiting the Sigur plateau was killed after being run over by a vehicle along the Achakarai Road in the Masinagudi Forest Range in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Sunday.
According to Deputy Director of MTR (Buffer Zone) L.C.S.Srikanth, a postmortem was conducted on the carcass on Sunday. “ It had a slight injury in its face and mouth. During postmortem we could see heavy haemorrhage and internal bleeding… We can conclude that is was hit by an unidentified vehicle,” he said.
Local conservationists said the male hyena that died was the same one that was being regularly sighted around Masinagudi town and feeding on scrap from a quarry that was being used as a dumpyard by residents.
The forest department said that a case has been registered and that the Forest Range Officer, Masinagudi, was instructed to form a team to investigate the incident.
“During postmortem, we found remains from the dump where it had been feeding,” said an official from the department.
Local conservationists have for years been calling for better enforcement of speed restrictions in both the buffer and core areas of MTR, with deer, langurs and even leopards having been killed in the past by speeding vehicles.
