At a time when conservation of animals, especially tigers, is the talk in the country, a group of villagers of the Mataina village in Uttar Pradesh mercilessly beat an adult tigress to death because she mauled and injured a person belonging to the village earlier that day.
A full two-minute video of the disturbing incident emerged with the person talking the video giving a voice-over, explaining what happened. The tigress was six-years-old and had broken ribs and injuries across her body. She was cremated after the forest officials conducted a post-mortem, NDTV reports.
Warning : this is disturbing content . A 5 year old adult tigress was beaten to death by villagers in UP's #Pilibhit on thursday afternoon . In this mobile video shot by a villager , there 's even background commentary on why they are killing the tigress ! Really sad ! pic.twitter.com/FY7ToT3TGA
— Alok Pandey (@alok_pandey) July 26, 2019
The incident took place in a village close to the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve on Wednesday afternoon. It is situated 240 kilometres away from Lucknow.
"She had sustained fractures and injuries from sharp-edged weapons like spears on almost every part of her body. She also had broken ribs," H Rajamohan, the director of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve told IANS.
At least 30 people participated in beating the animal up and the police have filed an FIR against 31 villagers. They have been charged under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. Reports claim that the villager did not let the forest officials through and take her to the hospital till she was dead.
"A forest team did reach the spot but by that time, the tigress was in so much pain that even an attempt to tranquilize her would have added to her plight," Vaibhav Shrivastava , Pilibhit's District Magistrate said.
"The tigress could have been rescued and given timely medical aid as the forest officials had reached the spot. But their inability to rescue the injured big cat in a span of over nine hours undoubtedly reflects their inability in protecting wildlife in adverse situations," GC Misra, the Former field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve said.
The Pilibhit district and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve alone have witnessed the deaths of 16 tigers and 3 leopards since 2012. the most common causes of death were snaring, poisoning, and contagious diseases like canine distemper. However, there were very few cases of deaths due to infighting.
