A female tiger was found dead at the forest border area near Villoni Estate's 12 tea plantation site on Saturday midnight.  Forest department staff who were on rounds reportedly found the tigress dead.

The animal is suspected to have died due to age-related reasons.Valparai Forest Range Officer Suresh Krishna said that the reason for its death will be known later today once the post mortem report comes out.

Wild animals like bears, tigers, elephants, leopards, bison could be found in forest areas surrounding Valparai and in other parts of Western Ghats. Usually tigers roam inside the dense forest areas and comes out at occasions.