Forest officers who had initially suspected a carcass found buried close to the Debrigarh sanctuary in Bargarh district to be that of a leopard, on Sunday said that it is “ apparently” of a tiger after they found a paw and four whiskers during a raid at Khajuria village.
The officials arrested three persons – Satyabrata Sahoo, Sushil Bhoi and Gouri Mirdha in connection with the case.
The carcass detected on 28 October was apparently that of a tiger and the paw and whiskers seized on Sunday belong to the same animal. The sample specimen from the badly decomposed carcass have been sent to the WII, Dehradun and National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru for confirmation of the species.
The forest department has also requested the CID to investigate the case.
During interrogation of the arrested persons, it was learnt that they had laid traps for wild boar. The tiger got electrocuted in one of their electric lines.