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Khan fired three bullets from his 458 calibre Winchester Magnum rifle, hitting the tiger in the shoulder and the head and killing him on the spot. Faizabad District Forest Officer OP Singh said: “Nawab Shafat Ali Khan, authorised by the Union government to kill the maneater, shot dead the animal in Bakchula forest outpost area.”
Early on Tuesday morning, the tiger attacked and killed a cow in Bakchula village, on the periphery of the Kumarganj forest range. Khan said: “Since the cow was half-eaten, I was sure that the tiger would come again to eat its prey. I waited the whole day on a scaffolding on a nearby tree.” The animal returned to the spot around 6 pm.
“After spotting the tiger, I fired and hit his right shoulder. After getting hit, the tiger charged towards me but I fired two more bullets, the second when he was just three feet away from me, and it hit the tiger in the head,” he added.
Its carcass is being brought to Faizabad, officials said. The tiger had strayed of Pilibhit jungles in last November and travelled over 400 km to reach the jungles of Faizabad two months ago. On the way, it killed two men in Pilibhit, one in Barabanki, and two in Faizabad.
It was declared a maneater after it killed a boy in Barabanki in December, but the order was revoked after protests from wildlife organisations and environmentalists. It was again declared a maneater after it killed a man in Faizabad on January 9. The last man it killed was a forest guide, Raghu Raj, on January 15. On two occasions, the forest officials claimed to have shot the big cat — on February 7 and 17 — but on both occasions their claim was proved wrong. On Tuesday, however, its luck ran out.
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