An autopsy report of a tiger found dead in Uttar Pradesh's Dudhwa Tiger Reserve revealed the cause of death to be septicemia -- blood poisoning and the infection that affected both his lungs and intestines.
This is the sixth tiger death in the past nine months in the Reserve.
The post-mortem was conducted on Tuesday at the Gola forest range headquarters by a panel of two veterinary officers.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of South Kheri forest division, Sanjay Biswal said that the tiger was 208 cm in length and weighed over 250 kg.
After the autopsy, the big cat was cremated, he added.
The feline’s corpse was spotted in a water channel on Monday evening by field forest staff in the core area of Sikandarpur forest of the South Kheri forest division.
The tiger’s viscera has been preserved to be sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute for a toxicological examination.
Forest officials had earlier suggested that the cause of the feline’s death was old age.