A mob of hundreds of people in India’s northeastern state of Assam killed and mutilated a Royal Bengal tiger just 20km from a popular national park, claiming the animal posed a threat to cattle in the area.
The incident took place in Dusutimukh village in Assam’s Golaghat district on Thursday morning around 8am when a mob of around 1,000 villagers gathered to chase a tiger into a wooded spot.
Villagers killed the tiger with machetes, spears and iron rods, divisional forest officer Gunadeep Das told The Times of India (TOI). Later, the villagers mutilated the dead animal, he said. Three forest officials were injured while attempting to protect the animal, according to TOI.
According to the officials, the villagers in the Golaghat district were angry over the killing of their livestock by the tiger. The villagers also claimed without proof that the tiger had killed a man in a nearby village around a month ago, according to TOI.
The tiger’s carcass was later found in the presence of the local magistrate, the report added. Mr Das said the remains of the tiger have been sent for an autopsy.
A case has been registered by Assam’s forest department. The location of the killing of tiger is just 20km away from Kaziranga National Park, the world's largest reserve for the endangered great one-horned rhinoceros.
At least one person has been arrested so far and more arrests are likely as the investigation proceeds, forest officials said.
"This is a very painful act. The Earth is not only for humans, it is for animals as well," state lawmaker Mrinal Saikia said in a post on X, confirming the human-animal conflict.
Tigers in India are a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972), which prohibits poaching, hunting and trade of tiger parts.
However, Royal Bengal tigers in India have faced threat from habitat destruction, illegal trade for body parts, natural calamities and angry villagers.
India doubled its tiger population in a little over a decade by protecting the big cats from poaching and habitat loss, ensuring they have enough prey, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and increasing communities’ living standards near tiger areas, a study published in January found.
The number of tigers grew from an estimated 1,706 tigers in 2010 to around 3,682 in 2022, according to estimates by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, making India home to roughly 75% of the global tiger population. The study found that some local communities near tiger habitats have also benefited from the increase in tigers because of the foot traffic and revenues brought in by ecotourism.
