Tiger is beaten to death on video, outraging India
NEW DELHI — Enraged villagers in northern India used sticks, spears and machetes to beat a tiger to death after it attacked several people in a national tiger reserve, authorities said Friday.
A crowd encircled the tiger in a jungle clearing and hit it in the face as it lay on its back, groaning. The tiger slowly moved its paws in a futile attempt to block the blows. A disturbing video of the incident resembles a lynching.
The world has only about 4,000 tigers left in the wild, and most of them live in India. After the video spread on social media, many Indians expressed outrage, questioning how anyone could kill such an iconic and endangered animal.
“India’s National Animal Beaten to Death,” blared a headline across the screen on NDTV, one of India’s biggest television channels, which aired the video.
India’s effort to protect tigers is in some ways a victim of its own success. Closer monitoring, new technology and stricter wildlife policies have led to a sharp increase in the tiger count, from 1,411 in 2006 to around 2,500 today.
India’s human population and its economy have been rapidly growing as well, steadily filling in rural areas with farms, roads and mushrooming towns like Pandharkawada. Many tigers are now running out of space and clashing more with humans.
They are spilling out of their dedicated reserves, roaming along smooth new asphalt highways and skulking through crowded farmland on a search for territory, mates and prey — such as antelope, wild pigs, stray cattle and sometimes people.