The injured vet at Nagaon Civil Hospital on Monday. A Telegraph picture

Nagaon, March 23: Forest guards shot dead a “maneater” Royal Bengal tiger today but not before the big cat had killed one person and injured two at Sakmothi village, 50km from here.

A veterinarian from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation near Kaziranga, Prasanta Boro, was also injured when a bullet fired by the forest guards accidentally grazed his right shoulder.

Nagaon divisional forest officer A. Ahmed said the tiger had attacked a villager, Bipul Bora, when the latter passed by a bamboo grove in which the animal was hiding in the Hatbor area of the village under Jakalabandha police station at 10 this morning.

Another villager, Uttam Saikia, saw the tiger attacking Bora and rushed to his rescue. The tiger then left Bora and “dragged Saikia inside the grove. We found his body later,” Ahmed said. The tiger had killed another person in Garubondah village on March 19.

On hearing of the tiger attacks, a team of forest guards accompanied by police and the vet went to the village today to capture the animal, Ahmed said. The team later sought permission from chief wildlife warden M.C. Malakar to kill the tiger and the official issued a proclamation to that effect.

When the team arrived in the village, it found a sea of humanity trying to chase away the animal. The team located the tiger near Bharalichok Namghar area of the village.

“The tiger, which was taking shelter inside the bamboo grove, suddenly jumped at the IRB jawan (havildar Jamaluddin Ahmed),” the DFO said. The vet aimed his tranquillising gun at the tiger, which was fleeing after attacking the policeman.

At the same time, the forest personnel also opened fire at the tiger. One of the bullets accidentally hit the vet, injuring him, and several hit the tiger, killing it.

The vet, the havildar and the injured villager were admitted to Nagaon Civil Hospital. Chintamoni Hazarika, a doctor at the hospital, said the policeman had lost blood and his condition was critical. The vet has been shifted to a private hospital in Guwahati. The forest department blamed the huge gathering of people for the tiger’s attack on the havildar and the vet.

“There was total chaos with people milling around. We could have easily tranquillised the tiger had there not been such a large gathering of people. The tiger got scared and attacked the policeman,” the Ahmed said.

The tiger, which is believed to have strayed from the Kaziranga National Park, has been spotted in the area for a week. The incident site is about 30km from the national park.

Kaziranga director S.N. Buragohain said the increasing tiger population could be the reason for these animals straying out of the park into human habitat.

A tiger census conducted by the Wildlife Trust of India with the help of camera trapping technology has just been concluded in Kaziranga. The findings have yet to be declared.