The six-year-old tigress died of broken ribs and injuries to her body.
A two-minute video from Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit district has surfaced online that shows an adult tigress being beaten mercilessly with sticks.
The said video was shot by a resident of the Mataina village on Wednesday afternoon on his mobile phone and has triggered widespread outrage over its content.
According to a background commentary by a bystander in the video, the villagers were assaulting the tigress because she had attacked and injured a villager in the morning.
The incident took place under a protected zone of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, about 240 km from state capital Lucknow.
The six-year-old tigress died of broken ribs and injuries to her body.
"She had sustained fractures and injuries from sharp-edged weapons like spears on almost every part of her body. She also had broken ribs," Pilibhit Tiger Reserve field director H Rajamohan told news agency IANS.
"A forest team did reach the spot but by that time, the tigress was in so much pain that even an attempt to tranquilize her would have added to her plight," Pilibhit District Magistrate Vaibhav Shrivastava said.
A magisterial inquiry will probe whether sincere efforts were actually made at the spot by forest officials to rescue and save the life of injured tigress.
Furthermore, according to an NDTV report, an official statement has contradicted the villagers account, saying the tigress had not strayed from her natural habitat.
"The villagers were warned multiple times not to engage with the tigress but on Wednesday, a man disregarded the advisory and went close to the tigress and was attacked," the report added.
Former field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve GC Misra told IANS: "The tigress could have been rescued and given timely medical aid as the forest officials had reached the spot. But their inability to rescue the injured big cat in a span of over nine hours undoubtedly reflects their inability in protecting wildlife in adverse situations."
Local forest officials have registered an FIR against 31 identified villagers for the incident and four people have been arrested.
(with inputs from IANS)
