Naga youth gun down lone Royal Bengal tigress

Zee Media Bureau/Sumit Channa

New Delhi: Tigers are India's national animal and a huge asset to our ecosystem. They have been declared an endangered species and are usually targeted by poachers for their skin.

A royal Bengal tigress that was spotted for the first time in Nagaland was shot dead at Medziphema village in Dimapur district by the locals. The big cat that is believed to have strayed into the state was attacked by 70 armed-youth.

The localites believe that killing the tigress was a brave and prestigious act. The tigress was sighted 30 km from the commercial hub Dimapur last week and from then on, the locals did not let it get away till they killed it.

According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Nagaland had no record of the presence of the wild animal and it is believed that it could have lost its way from Assam's Kaziranga National Park.

While the youth began chasing the tigress into a nearby jungle, it suddenly pounced on one of the men and injured him seriously. This made the other people angry and they reacted by firing at it with their 12-bore guns.

The locals, however, said that they did not want to kill the animal but just scare it away. When police along with some forest officials went to the site to retrieve the wild cat, locals did not allow them to do so. It was only after the intervention of some senior officials of the district administration that they were able to take the dead cat away.