Indian rangers kill one tiger, capture another
Date: 14-Nov-02
Country: INDIA
Around 100 forest rangers and police scoured creeks and swamps on Monday in the sanctuary, 100 km (60 miles) south of Calcutta, and surrounding areas to search for the tigers after they attacked villagers earlier in the day.
Four people were wounded in the attack, officials said.
"Forestry personnel had to kill one tiger Monday night in self-defence because it attacked them," an official told Reuters by telephone from the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, home to around 245 Royal Bengal tigers, some of them man-eaters.
The tiger was killed in Bali village, 115 km (70 miles) south of Calcutta, capital of West Bengal state, which shares the sprawling Sunderbans mangrove delta with neighbouring Bangladesh.
"The second tiger was tranquilized after it entered a villager's home near where the first tiger was killed. It (the second tiger) is safe," said the official, who asked to remain unnamed. Nobody was in the house when the tiger entered.
Since April 2002 this year, six people have been killed by tigers and another six injured in the Sunderbans. Villagers in the area killed two of the animals last year.
India has the world's biggest tiger population. But its tiger population has fallen to about 3,500 from 4,300 in the past 12 years, largely due to poaching, wildlife officials say.
