INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Maoists, has now become the killing field of an adult Royal Bengal tiger
The endangered beast was discovered in a forest in the area with a spear through its face.
The tiger was one of less than a hundred big
cats estimated to be roaming about the Sundarbans in the state.
For the last three months, the tiger had been sighted in the area
Agitated villagers had reported the matter to the wildlife authorities, following which the officials had launched a hunt for it.
They used
drones fixes with advanced cameras to locate the tiger but could not see the animal.
The area's mainly tribal population was angry and
scared -- angry that the authorities were not doing enough and scared of a possible attack by the tiger.
On Friday, the carcass weighing
of a half-eaten wild boar
Forest officials suspect the tribals came upon the tiger while it was eating the wild boar and speared it to death.
As hundreds of
villagers gathered at the spot at 2:30 pm on Friday, the forest officials had to ask them for help to lift the tiger on to a vehicle
The villagers then demanded money to do so.
The tiger was taken away for a post-mortem to Garbeta.The Sundarbans is the largest contiguous
mangrove forest in the world
The area is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests, and presents
species, the Royal Bengal tiger and other threatened species such as the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.
