The criminals would catch a wild deer on the edges of the park, hide a small tracking device inside its food or flesh, and release it back into the forest. When a tiger hunted and ate the deer, he would swallow the heavy plastic tracker whole. The device was meant to sit safely inside the tiger’s stomach for weeks, sending a constant location signal back to the criminals. The poachers didn’t have to brave the dangerous jungle at all; they just sat in a comfortable room with a laptop, watching a map.
The moment the tiger’s dot on the screen stopped moving, they knew he was asleep or dead. They could walk straight to the exact spot, take what they wanted, and vanish into Thin air. “But they made a big mistake with this specific tracker,” Dr. Shrestha added. “It was far too heavy and large. It got completely stuck in the tiger’s stomach.”