NEW DELHI — In India, you can’t just shoot a tiger.

Even if it’s a man-eater, and even if you’re working for a government agency, many strict requirements must be met before one of the endangered animals can legally be killed.

Armed with those regulations, wildlife advocates on Tuesday entered India’s Supreme Court in hopes of saving a female tiger known as T-1, who has evaded capture four times and is believed to have killed 13 people.

The 5-year-old tigress has been stalking a scruffy patch of central India for more than two years, mauling herders and farmers from poor villages, along with cows and horses.

She dragged some of her victims out of cotton fields by the neck and left them in shreds. Three people were killed in August, villagers are terrified and pressure is rising for the authorities to kill the creature. The hunt could begin this week.