A tigress that had killed at least five villagers and wounded several more was found electrocuted in a farm on Saturday morning in Maharashtra’s Wardha district, 85km from Nagpur.
The adolescent animal was shifted this July from a rescue centre in Nagpur and released at Bor tiger sanctuary, close to the place where it was found dead.
The tigress was originally from Bramhapuri forest division of Chandrapur, but was tranquilized and taken to Nagpur a few months ago after it killed two villagers.
She spent a month in rehab, but remained rogue and attacked people and livestock at villages near Bor.
Back-to-back attacks triggered protests, prompting the state wildlife department to order shooting her dead a couple of days ago.
Animal activists challenged the move at the Bombay high court’s Nagpur bench, which rejected the petition to stall the killing on Friday.
However, before she fell to a certified hunter’s bullet, an electric fence killed her near Sindhi village.
The carcass was found in the farm of Bhagwan Tekam, who was arrested. The famer said he put the electric fence in a wildlife-sensitive area to protect his crop from marauding herbivores.
Tigers and leopards often stray into human settlements because of shrinking habitat and become victims of cruel man-animal conflicts. They are poisoned, electrocuted or clubbed and gored to death.
{{/usCountry}}Tigers and leopards often stray into human settlements because of shrinking habitat and become victims of cruel man-animal conflicts. They are poisoned, electrocuted or clubbed and gored to death.
{{/usCountry}}Indiscriminate killing of animals, whose population has shrunk to alarming levels over the past century because of game hunting, poaching and illegal trade of bones and skins, continue despite strict wildlife laws in India.