All of us learnt about the concept of food chain in our early days of schooling but somewhere down the line as life gets better of us we tend to forget these core issues around which our life revolves. Caught in a busy affair as most of us are, we perhaps have little time to ponder upon something as basic as the food chain. Right??
It would have been so for the forest officials in Uttar Pradesh¡¯s Lakhimpur Kheri too but the recent post-mortem report of a tigress which was found dead in a canal in the region has now made them uneasy.
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The post mortem report, which has shocked many in the forest department, has pointed to the presence of pesticides in the stomach of the dead tigress.
According to news agency IANS, the corpse of the tigress in question was found in a canal in Lakhimpur Kheri in July this year. But the reason of death could not be ascertained at the moment even as the forest officials looked around for all possible causes. There were no injury marks on the animal's body and it looked more or less healthy.
The corpse of tigress was then sent to Indian Veterinary Research Institute, which is located in Bareilly. The doctors preserved her viscera for further tests.
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"The report suggested that parts of insecticides from organophosphate group was found in the viscera,¡± South Kheri Forest Department Officer Sameer Kumar was quoted as saying by IANS. He, however, refused to say anything further.
Earlier, IVRI Director RK Singh had confirmed submission of the report to the forest officer.
While some suspected that the tigress might had licked the grass containing pesticide, Sameer Kumar rubbished the theory saying pork was found in her stomach.
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Therefore the prevailing theory right now among Lakhimpur Kheri farmers as well as officials is that they sprinkled pesticides in sugarcane fields, which got transferred to the tigress through the pig that the tigress ate.
Worth reflecting at this juncture is the fact that the same sugarcane is consumed directly or indirectly by humans and several other animals including cows, whose milk and meat is consumed by humans, too graze in these fields.
Therefore, when traces of pesticides are found in the dead tigress stomach, how long will it to enter the human system? Or has it already??