Tiger shot dead in Assam after it kills two locals

A team of police and forest officials shot dead a Royal Bengal tiger at Nagabandha village in Morigaon district of Assam after it had strayed out of its natural habitat and killed two persons, one of them a woman, on Tuesday.

The adult tiger was being tracked by a team of forest staff, police personnel, tiger experts from an non-government organisation and a tranquilising group since November 17 when it was first spotted at the nearby Kandhulimari village, informed official sources.

The big cat killed a 38-year-old woman, Rukina Khatun, working in a paddy field at Goromari on Tuesday morning. On being chased by villagers it crossed over a water body and took shelter inside a hut. As enraged villagers surrounded the hut in the presence of forest and police officials, the tiger pounced out of the hut and killed 20-year-old Chand Mian. This prompted the police personnel to open fire and the animal was killed on the spot. 

An inquiry has also been ordered to ascertain the circumstances leading to death of the tiger.

Meanwhile, there has been a huge concern about the dwindling tiger population in Kaziranga National Park. The park has lost its third tiger this month and the fifth in the year, raising questions about conservation measures.

The park guards recovered the carcass of an adult tigress in the Agaratoli range of the park on Friday. The cause of the death of the endangered animal is not yet known, as the authority is awaiting the forensic test reports on the samples sent for laboratory tests.

Earlier, on November 11, the patrolling staff of national park recovered another carcass of an adult tiger from hte Bagori Range of the park. The summary report submitted to the National Tiger Conservation Authority on the basis of the post-mortem stated that the tiger died of severe injury as per preliminary investigation.

On November 10, the carcass of another adult tiger was recovered by the patrolling staff at the Laudubi camp of the Kohora.

According to the finding compile by Aaranyak, a NGO in coordination with the Assam Forest Department and the Kaziranga National there are 32.64 tigers per 100 sq km at Kaziranga -- the highest tiger density in the world.