Two days after hunters shot dead tigress Avni in Maharashtra, villagers crushed a tiger to death in the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh's Philbhit district. The incident took place on Sunday, 4 November, after the tiger allegedly mauled a 50-year-old man who later succumbed to his injuries, reported the Hindustan Times.
According to the HT report, while the reserve authorities were rushing fifty-year-old Devanand to hospital, the villagers surrounded the tiger and crushed it to death with a tractor.
Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Field Director of the reserve, said the spot where the incident took place was in the core zone of the tiger reserve.
“An FIR will be lodged under the Wildlife Protection Act and appropriate action taken. The killing of a tiger inside a protected area is a serious offence.”Rakesh Kumar Pandey, Field Director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve
The tiger, India’s national animal, is categorised as a ‘Schedule One’ species of endangered animals under the Act. There are only 3,900 tigers left in the world.
The World Wildlife Fund told HT:
“As tigers continue to lose their habitat and prey species, they are increasingly coming into conflict with humans as they attack domestic animals – and sometimes people. In retaliation, tigers are often killed by angry villagers.”
(With inputs from Hindustan Times.)
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