Talodi man-eater shot dead
1 Dec 2007, 0443 hrs IST,Vijay Pinjarkar & Mazhar Ali,TNN



NAGPUR/CHANDRAPUR: The four police department sharpshooters shot dead the man-eating tiger, which had wreaked havoc in Talodi, at 8 am on Friday. Interestingly, the wild cat turned out to be a male tiger and not a female as assumed earlier. The animal was shot in compartment number 30 on the periphery of Govindpur village, when it was approaching a bull that it had killed on Thursday. The village is part of the Talodi-Balapur forest range of Bramhapuri forest division in North Chandrapur Circle.

"It was a close encounter from about 60 metres. In all, we fired 38 rounds and eight bullets were removed from the caracass of the tiger. When we hit the first bullet, the tiger was still walking but his movement became slow. We fired more rounds but two bullets—one in the neck and another in the heart—proved fatal," sharpshooters Durgadas Gadam and Vijay Bhardiya told TOI.

"I’m relieved. It was a right decision as human life is more important for us than the tiger. We had been chasing the animal since October 15 but were unsuccessful. We would have been in trouble following more attacks on humans," remarked B Majumdar, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), wildlife, Maharashtra. The tiger had killed six villagers, four of them in little over a month.

"We had been spending sleepless nights for the past six months. Now our nightmare is over," claimed many villagers, who looked relaxed after seeing the tiger dead. The sharpshooters from Chandrapur headquarters were led by Rahul Sorte, RFO.

When the dead tiger was being taken in a vehicle, hundreds of curious villagers thronged the roads to have a glimpse of the man-eater. The officials also went slow to send a message that the animal was killed.

38 SHOTS---"SHARP-SHOOTERS"

I was going to say the same thing.

Hamdeni

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
38 SHOTS---"SHARP-SHOOTERS"

38 shots, 8 bullets removed from the carcass.



damn at 60 meters thats lousy shooting, i dont think they should quit there day job.

peter

Where did the other 30 bullets go into this village? I would feel safer with one tiger than being in the vicinity of those four "sharpshooters".

I remember an incident in minneapolis a decade or so ago.Two "suspects " pulled some crime,must have been murder,cause the police shot back at them.98 times if I remember correctly,never touched one of them.

Very sad.

They should just go ahead and kill every tiger in India since that is where this is going.

I disagree with the gentleman quoted. As far a I'm concerned the tiger is more important than human life in India. In most cases the "villagers" have moved onto land set aside for tigers and leopards, yet when they get killed, the predator is a "man-eater".

Just a guess, but I would say they killed the wrong tiger if all indications were that it was a female that had killed the "villagers".

As for the "sharpshooters"; their weapons are antiquated, and their skills are virtually non-existent. They killed a "rogue" elephant while we were living in India. Same scenario. They kept running along pumping lead into the animal until he finally bled-out and keeled over.

It is a shame that the tiger doesn't live in a first-world country where they can be protected and preserved. Project Tiger in India has become a joke.

...... Kensco .sorry but I greatly disagree with you......But if you would be so kind as to go feed yourself to the next maneater ,,,,,you would at least be saving some innocent person from being eaten .................................

im imperssed by the figure 38 rounds plus sharp shooters dam,thank GOD it was a tiger what happens when there was an terrorist out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!