After the Death of a Tigress and Her Four Cubs, Maharashtra Launches a Mass Vaccination Drive for Strays |
In the forests of central India, the threat to a tiger may not always come from a poacher’s gun or shrinking habitat. Sometimes, it arrives quietly through village lanes carried by a stray dog.
Earlier this month, the deaths of a tigress and her four sub-adult cubs at Kanha Tiger Reserve sent shockwaves through India’s conservation circles. The animals reportedly died within nine days after being infected with canine distemper virus (CDV), a highly contagious disease commonly spread by domestic and feral dogs.
The incident pushed the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to issue an urgent advisory on 5 May, warning states that the virus posed a growing danger to wild carnivores.
Maharashtra responded immediately.
Acting on the advisory, Maharashtra’s chief wildlife warden and principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), M Srinivasa Reddy, directed field directors across all tiger reserves in the state to begin vaccination drives for domestic and stray dogs living around protected forests, buffer zones and tourism corridors.
The idea is simple: protect the dogs to protect the tigers.
Why vaccinating dogs matters
Canine distemper virus does not always kill tigers directly.........