The state forest department recovered a skeleton of a Royal Bengal tiger from Ajmalmari forest in South 24 Paragans on Wednesday. The area from where the skeleton was recovered is located adjacent to the Sunderban Tiger Reserve Project area.

Today’s recovery came after the arrest of two poacher brothers Subal and Subhas Mondal with a tiger skin from East Gorberia village in March this year.

The skin was that of a six-and-a-half-feet long fully grown Sundarbans tiger. After interrogating the duo, forest officials had been able to arrest two other suspected poachers Abu Hossain Mollah and Usman Mollah from Purbagurguria village in South 24 Parganas last month. Officials had recovered a deerskin and a trap from their possession.

According to the state wildlife wing of the Forest Department, all these cases are suspected to be inter-related, they are not ruling out that the recovered skeleton could be of the same tiger whose skin was seized from the Mondal brothers. The skeleton has been sent to a laboratory in Hyderabad.