Photographs of a post-mortem on a wild tiger.

From the poacher's point of view, India, with all of its red tape, has always presented ideal conditions in which to make a killing. Even supposed 'guardians' of the tiger are often in cohorts with poachers. Police and Forest officers have been among the known offenders.

This youngster was not a poacher's target and was within the confines of a well-known Tiger Reserve. After the loss of some cattle, locals living near the edge of the reserve attempted to kill the tiger attacking their stock. The juvenile shown here fed from a poisoned carcass. These can kill several innocent tigers if the authorities don't find them first. It is extremely unlikely this was the tiger carrying out the attacks as it is too young, though its mother may have responsible.

These poisonings and other killings continue despite the Indian Government having a programme in place to give financial compensation to people who lose livestock to tigers. Some people still put the loss of tigers from India at several per week.

To prevent tiger parts ending up on the black market, dead tigers such as this one are burnt. Big debates surround the issue of whether stockpiles of elephant and rhino horn, and other marketable items, should be burnt or sold. Forestry officials in India are often neither paid, nor equipped with guns, shoes or uniforms. Burning demonstrates that the fight against poaching goes on. Selling these would provide money to equip the workers, but would it ever reach them and would doing this also create an unwanted demand for these products?

Post-Mortems - Page 1: Preparation | 2: Post-Mortem | 3: Disposal

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