Six endangered pythons were killed, skinned and consumed by villagers in North Tripura during a Sunday feast.

Members of Pawsome, an Agartala-based NGO, working for protection of wildlife, said residents of Chimlung village in Kanchanpur area under North Tripura district feasted on the endangered pythons.

The village is located along the Tripura-Mizoram border.

The place of incident is around 225 km northeast of Agartala, the state capital of Tripura.

Wildlife conservationists have reacted strongly as the video clips and pictures of the incident went viral on the social media.

While sharing a video and several images of the pythons being cut into pieces publicly, on its Facebook page, NGO Pawsome said: “6 endangered species of python being slaughtered for consumption.”

In the month of July last year, a 47-year-old captive elephant named Laxmi from Assam, which had an unnatural death, was chopped into pieces, and the meat was consumed by the villagers close to Kanhmun Forest Range in Mizoram.

The pictures of the dead elephant’s sliced meat had gone viral all over the internet.

NGO Pawsome said: “This illegal practice of destroying the forest and wildlife is going on for years, but no strict action/awareness has been taken yet.”

The NGO said they would approach the local administration and the forest department to take action against the illegal act.

“We are going to inform the local administration and the forest department to take immediate measure to stop this illegal practice,” the NGO said in its Facebook post.

The chief wildlife warden of Tripura, DK Sharma, when contacted, said officials have been directed to visit the village, and submit a report as early as possible.

“We have the photographs. And we are trying to identify the people and take necessary action. We have asked the DFO to submit a report at the earliest,” Sharma said.

Bibrata Marak, the range officer of Kanchanpur forest range said they have started the investigations, and would initiate actions as per the law.