Lucknow: Villagers crushed a tigress to death with a tractor in Kishanpur sanctuary of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on Sunday; hours after the tigress mauled a 50-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district.
After the tigress attacked the man, angry villagers marched to the core area of the park, allegedly beat up forest guards, snatched a tractor and then ran over the 10-year-old tigress when they found her. They also hit the animal with heavy sticks.
The incident came two days after hunters shot dead a tigress suspected of killing 13 people in Maharashtra.
Forest department officials say the tigress has never attacked people in the last 10 years.
Mahavir Kaujlagi, deputy director of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, said the villagers killed the tigress in a retaliatory attack.
“While we were busy in rushing the injured man to hospital, the villagers surrounded the big cat and crushed it to death under a tractor,” he said. 50-year-old Devanand, succumbed to his injuries, who the villagers said was attacked by the tigress on Sunday morning.
Ramesh Kumar Pandey, field director of the tiger reserve said action will be taken against those involved in the attack on the tigress.
“An FIR will be lodged under the Wildlife Protection Act and appropriate action taken. The killing of a tiger inside the protected area is a serious offence,” Pandey added.
The tiger is India’s national animal and is categorised as a ‘Schedule One’ species of endangered animals under the Wildlife Protection Act.
