India: Rampaging Tiger Kills Villagers
Pastor Dale Morgan
India: Rampaging Tiger Kills Villagers*
The Associated Press
Monday, December 3, 2007; 3:00 PM
NAGPUR, India -- A tiger that killed four people and mauled two others
in the past six weeks was shot to death by police over the weekend, a
forest official in western India said Monday.
Angry villagers had demanded that authorities kill the tiger, which had
been straying away from the Tadoba-Andhari sanctuary in the western
state of Maharashtra since mid-October.
"The problematic animal has been killed. This is the same tiger that
killed four villagers," said B. Majumdar, chief conservator of forests.
"The pug mark (footprint) of the tiger killed matches the impressions
taken earlier while tracking the tiger."
Officials had said that they would try to trap, tranquilize or drive
away the tiger, which had been spotted in rice fields bordering the
thick jungles.
But on Friday, the tiger killed its fourth victim _ a farm worker _
dragging him into the forest and then fleeing when villagers shouted.
The tiger later killed a buffalo in the same area near Mangrul village,
60 miles south of the city of Nagpur.
Forest officials and police sharpshooters with rifles kept vigil near
the buffalo carcass and shot the tiger early Saturday when it
reappeared, Majumdar said.
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Animal rights activists have questioned the decision to kill the tiger.
There are an estimated 44 tigers in the lush sanctuary often cited as a
good example of tiger protection. Beyond the 241 square miles of
reserve, the forest extends for another 497 miles and is densely
populated with some 50,000 people who live in villages and work in
surrounding rice fields.
Wildlife activist Debi Goenka says forest officials should have tried
harder to push the tiger back into the sanctuary and villagers should
have been cautioned to go to work in groups.
Goenka also said the protected sanctuary must be extended to include the
surrounding forest area.
"This situation will happen again and again unless the government
decides that tigers are important and expands the sanctuary area."
While forest officials initially said a female tiger was responsible for
killing villagers, police on Saturday shot a male tiger.
Majumdar said officials were wrong about the tiger's gender at first.
"If it's a mistake, no one is going to admit it," said Goenka.
"Unfortunately, the only way we will know is if there are no more kills
over the next three months."
India's tiger population is fast dwindling with a majority killed either
by poachers or angry villagers competing with tigers for land.
An official report last month confirmed a drastic drop in wild tigers
confirming there are no more than 1,500 tigers in India's reserves and
jungles _ down from about 3,600 five years ago and an estimated 100,000
a century ago.