BHUBANESWAR: The tigress, which was shot at by poachers, was apprehended to have her spinal cord damaged while trying to evade pellet-spray in Satkoshia Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) about 10 days ago.

The tigress belonging to Royal Bengal Tiger species was finding it very difficult to move her back. The fact came to the light after the feline was exposed to several radiographic tests at Orissa Veterinary College (OVC) on the campus of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) here on Tuesday.

"Though a detailed analysis of radiography tests is yet to be carried out, preliminary descriptions points out that the tigress might have damaged a spinal cord between L-6 and L-7 of her vertebrate," Indramani Nath, Associate Professor of OVC, said.

Infections due to pellet injuries were probably migrating to other vital organs, Mr. Nath said.

Paralytic damage

Sources said the tigress was carrying paralytic damage on her back and there were remote chances that she would regain here earlier agility.

"If this apprehension comes true, there is hardly any veterinary centre in India that could treat paralytic damage of a tigress," an expert said. He said the physiotherapy route might not be sufficient to ensure tigress jump on her feet.

In this gloomy situation, the silver lining was that the tigress started wagging her tail slowly and was responding to foods.

Meanwhile, a technical committee constituted by the Department of Forest and Environment would meet here on Wednesday to discuss the health condition of the tigress.

The female Royal Bengal Tiger had been kept under round-the-clock observation of a team of five experienced veterinarians and Nandankanan Zoological Park.

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