Tigress T1 at a postmortem room (AFP)

SHAHJAHANPUR: In a brazen attack on wildlife , angry locals barged into the core area of Dudhwa tiger reserve (DTR) on Sunday evening, beat up forest guards, snatched their tractor and ran it over an adult tigress who had injured one of the residents earlier in the day. Later, they beat her to death with sticks as the injured local also succumbed to his injuries in the meanwhile.

According to forest officials, the attackers belong to Chaltua village, situated inside the core area of Dudhwa tiger reserve. In the past, the residents of this village have refused all proposals of the forest department to relocate elsewhere primarily because of their “dependency on forest produce”.

The officials said that the over 10-year-old tigress had never injured any human in the past and she attacked the victim as he was intruding into the reserve forest.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in the village as locals pelted stones at the elephants kept in the village for combing ops and refused to talk to forest officials.

Ramesh Pandey, field director DTR, has spoken with senior police officials of the zone and directed them to take action against the villagers involved in the killing of the tigress in the reserve’s core area.

“It is a clear case of a tigress’ killing in cold blood. All the accused involved in the heinous act would be sent to jail. The tigress had attacked the victim, who was trespassing the forest area, which is an offence. We will also book all the accused for attacking forest staff, looting the forest department’s property and misusing it for killing the tigress. I have informed the principal chief conservator of forests. We have managed to retrieve the body of the tigress from the village and an autopsy will be conducted by a panel of three doctors on Monday,” Pandey tol d TOI .

