A crab catcher was dragged away by a tiger in Sundarbans. (Representational image)

A crab catcher was dragged away by a tiger in West Bengal's Sundarbans, a forest official said this morning.

The incident occurred at a village in South 24 Parganas on International Tigers' Day on Monday.

"A tiger dragged away 48-year-old Arjun Mondal by the neck, while he was catching crabs in a creek near Sadakkhali forest with two other friends of Rajatjubuli village," the forest official said.

He said that the victim's friends -- Dhruba Mondal and Paritosh Mridha -- went after the tiger but could not rescue him.

"They returned and informed Arjun Mondal's family and the Sajnekhali Range Office, who then launched a search for the crab catcher but he is yet to be traced." he said.

This is the third incident of tiger attack on humans in the Sundarbans this month, the official said.

According to the All India Tiger Estimation Report 2018 released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the tiger population in the country has grown from 1,400 in 2014 to 2,977 in 2019.