India man-eating tigress killed after huge hunt

A tigress in India which is said to have killed 13 people has been shot dead after a major hunt, officials say.

The six-year-old tigress had evaded capture in the jungles of the western state of Maharashtra for two years.

Last month wildlife officials deployed perfume in a bid to lure the animal.

Activists had campaigned to save the tiger, but India's Supreme Court said it would not interfere if forest rangers were forced to shoot it.

A team armed with a tranquiliser gun and a firearm was stationed in a vehicle on a road where the tigress, known as T-1, had been spotted by villagers, a Forestry Department statement said.

A patrol team went to an area near Borati village on Friday evening, after receiving reports of the tigress' presence.

A tranquilliser dart was fired at the animal. Once hit, the tigress charged the patrol's vehicle and she was killed by a single shot from a distance of between eight and 10 metres (26-33 ft), the statement said.

A post-mortem will now be performed on the beast.

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In August the tigress and her two nine-month-old cubs killed three people in the area around the town of Pandharkawada in Yavatmal district and left more than 5,000 residents fearing for their lives.

Farmers and graziers were told to return early from the fields and forest, venture out only in groups, and not defecate in the open fields, a common practice in the villages.