Forest guards in Kaziranga National Park on Friday gunned down an adult Royal Bengal Tiger in Upper Assam.
Forest officials said the tiger, which strayed out of the park and made its way into a village, died due to accidental firing by forest personnel.
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KNP director PK Sivakumar said that a carcass of the approx 10-year-old male Royal Bengal Tiger was found near Japoripothar, Karuabari area (fringe area KNP & TR) by the forest personnel.
“On inquiry, it is found that the tiger died due to bullet wound suspected to be accidental firing while trying to scare away the tiger from the public area. We are further conducting a detailed inquiry into the incident,” Sivakumar said.
He said that the tiger had killed a buffalo two days back and reappeared on Thursday evening.
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“Forest guards were immediately sent to the area after the local people had informed about the presence of the tiger. On Friday morning, the tiger and the forest guards came very close to each other and the tiger tried to attack them. After finding no other option, the forest guards fired in self-defense,” Kumar said.
Sivakumar said that since the tiger was old, it possibly could not hunt in the forest and strayed out looking for livestock.
This is the third instance in the recent past in which a tiger carcass was recovered from KNP & TR.
On June 5, the carcass of a four-year-old male tiger was found at Sidha Kathoni area of the national park.
Forest officials had said that the four-year-old male tiger was killed due to infighting.