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Mob kills Royal Bengal tiger in India's Assam state

Cherylann Mollan
BBC News, Mumbai
Getty Images In this photograph taken on December 21, 2014, a Royal Bengal Tiger pauses in a jungle clearing in Kaziranga National Park, some 280kms east of Guwahati. Getty Images
Shrinking tiger habitat has led to man-animal conflict in Assam state

A Royal Bengal tiger was killed and dismembered by a mob in India's north eastern state of Assam, a forest official has said.

Angry residents from a village in the Golaghat district reportedly took the step because the tiger had killed livestock in the area and posed a threat to their lives.

The state's forest department has ed a case.

Instances of man-animal conflict are not new to Assam. This is the third tiger killing that has been reported this year.

Top forest official Gunadeep Das told Times of India newspaper that the tiger had died from sharp wounds and not gunshots.

The carcass was later recovered in the presence of a magistrate, reports say.

Mr Das told a local newspaper that "around a thousand people had gathered to kill the tiger" and that some of them attacked the tiger with machetes. He added that the tiger's carcass had been sent for an autopsy.

Mrinal Saikia, a lawmaker from Assam state condemned the killing on X. He shared a video that showed the purported dead body of the tiger with parts of its skin, face and legs missing.

The BBC has not independently verified the video.

"This is a very painful act. The Earth is not only for humans, it is for animals as well," he said in the post, adding that strict action will be taken against those involved in the killing.

Another forest official, Sonali Ghosh told local media that the origins of the tiger were unclear. According to reports, the animal was killed about 20km (12 miles) away from the Kaziranga National Park.

Latest data by Assam's forest department shows the population of tigers in the state has steadily increased from just 70 in 2006 to 190 in 2019 due to various conservation efforts.

However, instances of tigers being killed due to conflict with villagers have been often reported in the media, which could be because of shrinking habitat and lack of protection of tiger corridors between different national parks in the state.

Tigers are a protected species under India's Wildlife Protection Act (1972), which prohibits poaching, hunting and trade of tiger parts.