Villagers beat tiger to death

Sat, Jan 23, 2010
The Daily Star/Asia News Network

A Royal Bengal Tiger was beaten to death by villagers at Abadchandipur adjacent to the Sundarbans in Shyamnagar upazila yesterday evening.

Local sources said villagers trapped the tiger in a kitchen at about 8:00am yesterday but forest department officials failed to bring tranquilliser gun till 6:00pm when the tiger was killed.

Meanwhile, at least 15 people were injured as Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel charged baton on a gathering of villagers who attempted to kill the tiger at about 5:00pm.

Villagers also threw brickbats at law enforcers and forest officials while incidents of chase and counter-chase took place throughout the day between local people and members of law enforcement agencies.

Locals and forest officials said the tiger entered the village in search of food after crossing river Chunna Thursday night.

In the morning, villagers found the tiger sitting near the house of Khorshed Ali of Abadchandipur village and chased it. At one stage, the tiger entered the kitchen of Khorshed Ali and villagers locked its door from outside.

They later started guarding the kitchen so that the tiger could not come out and attack them. Meantime, police, BDR and forest guards rushed to the spot.

Jatiya Party (Ershad) lawmaker HM Golam Reza, commanding officer of 7 Rifles Battalion Lt Col Badrul Alam, officials of local administration and forest department also rushed to the spot and asked the villagers not to kill the tiger.

They told villagers that they were bringing tranquilliser gun to catch the tiger alive.

At one stage, villagers killed the tiger at about 6:00pm as forest department officials failed to bring tranquilliser gun by the time, local sources said.

Sources in the forest department said they could not bring tranquilliser gun by the evening, as there is no such gun kept at its Khulna office.

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