Tiger falls prey to villagers

SATKHIRA, Mar 12 (bdnews24.com) : A tiger has been killed by villagers at Golakhali in Shyamnagar Upazila of the district. One person was also injured in an attack by the tiger early Saturday, forest officer Abul Hossain of Koikhali station under Satkhira range said. He said residents of Golakhali, close to the Sundarbans, beat the tiger to death after it had come to the locality and killed six goats. One Nazrul Islam, son of Pagal Sarder, was injured in an attack by the tiger when it was being beaten up by the villagers. He was admitted to Shyamnagar Upazila Health Complex, Abul said. The tiger entered the village around 2am and killed the goats after entering the cattle-shade of one 'Ujjal', he said quoting the villagers. Ujjal along with the villagers besieged the house and killed the tiger before forest rangers, who were informed of the tiger's presence over cell phone, reached the spot. Forest rangers with the help of Tiger Respond Team personnel took the dead tiger to Kalagachhi Station. Assistant forest conservator of Sundarbans Satkhira range Toufiqul Islam told the news agency that tigers usually came down to the plains only when they did not find anything to hunt in the forest. Apart from intensifying patrolling by the rangers, members and chairmen in areas close to Sundarbans have been asked to form patrolling committee to check tigers' intrusion in locality, he said. According to government statistics, tigers have entered localities 123 times in the last two years and five tigers were killed during the period. At least 51 people and 36 cattleheads were killed by tigers during this period, it says, adding 193 people were killed in tiger attacks, while 23 tigers killed from 2000 to 2009. There are 440 tigers in the Sudarbans, according to the Tiger census-2004. An adult tiger usually needs 8-9 kilograms of meat every day.