‘Man-Eater of Champaran’ shot dead, India loses one more tiger

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The research showed that, between 2012 and 2018, more than 200 tigers were electrocuted or murdered by poachers. A total of 2,967 tigers were counted in India in 2018, which is where almost 70% of the tigers in the world are found.

At least six people have been killed by the tiger in the past month, including a mother and her eight-year-old kid on October 8. The tiger terrorised communities on the outskirts of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Champaran, eastern India. Authorities had already classified the tiger, who was supposedly a male of three or four years old, as a “man-eater,” meaning that it may be shot, before the two most recent kills.

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“Two teams went into the forest on two elephants on Saturday afternoon and the third one waited where we thought the tiger would exit — and we fired five rounds to kill it there,” local police chief Kiran Kumar told AFP.

Conservationists attribute the rise of man-animal conflict in some parts of India to the rapid spread of human settlements near forests and important wildlife corridors for species like elephants and tigers. According to government statistics, tiger attacks in India claimed the lives of close to 225 people between 2014 and 2019.

The squad, which included eight shooters and around 200 forest department employees, finished the job in about six hours with the help of neighbourhood residents thumping tin cans, according to Kumar. Large sugarcane fields, according to officials, made it simpler for the tiger to hide and prey on local inhabitants and their cattle.

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One of the victims was a 12-year-old girl who was pulled from her bed on October 5, according to reports. Following the tiger’s maiming of a youngster in its maiden attack in May, many in the poor villages around the reserve in Bihar state stopped leaving in the evening.

Ram Kisun Yadav, a local villager, told the Hindustan Times that, despite the tiger’s looming threat, they could not stay inside because they had to feed their cattle.

(With agency inputs)