LUCKNOW: A day after a tigress was killed by angry residents of Chaltua village as they ran over a tractor on the big cat and later beat it to death in the core forest area of Duhdwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), the forest officials called it a 'murder' and got a named FIR lodged against six villagers at the Sehramau police station in Pilibhit district on Monday.
Some unidentified villagers were also booked in connection with the killing of feline. The forest officials, who were found napping when the incident took place on Sunday evening, got the FIR lodged under various Sections of IPC and Wildlife Protection Act, confirmed Inspector Avtar Singh of Sehramau kotwali police station.
Those named in the FIR lodged on behalf of Kishanpur sanctuary forest guard Mohan Ram implicated Bablu, Mukesh, Lal Bahadur, Chauthi, Subhash, Om Prakash and six unidentified villagers, said the sources.
However, an autopsy of the tigress was conducted as per the norms laid by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) at the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) office in Paliya town, said DTR Deputy Director Mahavir Kaujlagi.
Forest officials claimed that they were creating awareness among villagers every day through workshops, 'baithaks' and panchayat meetings to avoid man-animal conflict but they could not get a hint that the villagers of Chaltua, situated inside the core area of Dudhwa tiger reserve, were planning to kill the feline.
In fact, the tigress had mauled Devanand (50) of Chaltua village, located in the Kishanpur sanctuary area of the DTR on Saturday as he was going deep into the woods. Devanand later succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
However, the forest officials claim that the tigress had never breached the forest limits earlier and this time also it attacked the man as he was foraying deep into the forest. In the past, the residents of the village had refused all proposals of the forest department to relocate elsewhere, mainly because of their dependency on forest produce, said an official.