A tiger, which had claimed nine lives in the last 26 days in Bihar’s West Champaran district, was shot dead on Saturday by a team of sharp shooters and forest officials who were on the hunt for him.
A shoot-at-sight order had been issued against the tiger on October 7 by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the State’s additional principal chief conservator of forest-cum-wildlife warden after the villagers around the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in the district started protesting against forest officials over the wild cat on the prowl.
“An order has been issued to kill the tiger that has caused death to common life. The order has been issued by the department’s additional principal chief conservator of forest-cum-chief wildlife warden, Bihar Shri Prabhat Kumar Gupta in which it has been considered necessary to kill the tiger in view of all the circumstances”, said the government release.
Ever since the order was issued against the marauding tiger, around 500 people comprising forest employees, local police officials, sharp shooters, trackers and villagers had been searching the area to spot the tiger. On Saturday afternoon, the tiger was spotted and sharp shooters shot him dead. Later, a video of the villagers taking pictures of the dead tiger and touching its body emerged.
