NDTV Correspondent
January 25, 2010, Itanagar

A full grown Royal Bengal Tiger was hunted down by villagers of Numuk in Arunachal Pradesh's West Siang district.

Villagers gathered around the tiger after the kill. The meat was then consumed by the people but even more disturbing is the information of a possible wild life trade racket flourishing in that area.

The skin of the tiger was allegedly sold to a certain businessman from Assam for 1.5 lakh rupees.

"They must have gone for some small animal hunt and came across this tiger and killed it. It is about 30 km from Along. It was a heavy animal, even four persons could not carry it properly, you may have seen the picture. Gun ammunition was used to shoot. The skin was sold to some trader from Guwahati at Silapathar. Wildlife authorities talk about penalties but wildlife crime is going on. This is the season of deer hunting and deer is being hunted regularly," said Tapak Kato, an eyewitness from Namuk.

In the last one year this is the third incident of tiger hunting in the area but the first time that there was photographic evidence.

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