Ramnagar (Uttarakhand), Mar 19 : The body of a tigress suspected to have died in a fight with another tiger was found in Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.

The officials found the badly mauled body of the ten-year-old tiger in Dhenla range of the park, close to Hathidangar village.

"It is a result of fighting between two tigers. The female tiger that was elderly died in the fight. The tiger has killed it and mauled her back portion," said V. K. Singhal, director of the park.

Situated at the foothills of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, the park is well-known for its tigers, leopards and elephants.

There were about 40,000 tigers in India a hundred years ago. A recent government census report said the tiger population has fallen to 1,411, down from 3,642 in 2002, largely due to dwindling habitat and poaching.

A special panel set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in 2006 that thousands of poor villagers inside India''s tiger reserves would have to be relocated to protect the endangered animals from poachers and smugglers.