Deputy conservator of forests (Gir East) Anshuman Sharma said panel postmortem suggests the cub died due to infighting. However, forest officials are surprised as this was the same cub that was injured twice earlier. This time the cub was seriously injured and succumbed.
"Earlier, when the cub was around 4-month-old, we rescued it with serious injuries and its skull was completely exposed of the body. Our doctors worked hard to save the cub, which made a lucky recovery, and we released it into the wild. A few days later, the same cub was injured, so we rescued it and gave it further treatment and released it with the same group.
We observed the animal constantly to monitor its movements. We wanted to know why the same cub was being injured repeatedly. However, on Monday, a farmer informed us about a lion carcass and we found that it was the same cub," Sharma said.
Forest officials said there is a group of two lioness and two cubs in the area. There is also a group of male lions there.
"We suspect the males may have killed the cub. But we are still baffled as to why only one cub was injured repeatedly when there was also another one with the two lionesses," a forest official said.
News Source:- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
