Tiger Killed By Excavator Machine: 8-Year-Old Tiger Crushed [Graphic Video]

The below video is going viral, along with versions of the same video that appear to show a tiger being killed by an excavator machine.

Warning: The below video called “Young male tiger killed by JCB machine” might be disturbing to some viewers.

As reported by National Geographic, the video seems to show a tiger that was crushed by the large excavator. The video footage was taken in the Ramnagar Forest, where the tiger might have gotten away from the Corbett Tiger Reserve. The Dabka River is mined for stone aplenty, which has an effect upon wildlife like tigers nearby. Now that video from the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India is making the rounds online and spreading across the world, so is the response to the viral video. The publication reported that the shocking video of the tiger being killed has prompted a government investigation into the matter.

As reported by the Daily Mail, the same tiger had just killed two people in Bailpadav the day before the shocking video was captured. The tiger reportedly had been giving tranquilizers prior to falling beneath the excavator’s heavy arm, causing the tiger to have problems escaping. The official cause of the tiger’s death was asphyxiation, blood poisoning and other injuries.

The tiger was being captured by forest experts after 33-year-old worker Bhagwati Devi was killed along with her father-in-law Lakhpat on Thursday after being mauled to death by the tiger. The father-in-law was attempting to rescue Devi, who had been dragged into a cave by the tiger. Other workers threatened to stop working until the tiger was caught. Instead of transporting the tiger to the Nainital Zoo, the tiger was accidentally crushed. One official guessed that the tiger might have been overdosed.

According to the Hindustan Times, the tiger was an 8-year-old cat. The death of the tiger is causing quite a bit of backlash online, with folks heatedly commenting on either side of the debate’s divide. Whereas some people are angry that a tiger was killed due to what they see is encroachment upon the tiger’s habitat, others note that the forest officials were attempting to rescue and transport the tiger when the rescue mission apparently went wrong.

The outrage about the tiger’s death is causing articles and videos to be shared on social media, with comments like the following being published online.

Sara Groundwork: “Heart-breaking! The downside of our human footprint is stomping out so many other organisms as well as a lot of the basic environment…”

Dave Cook: “Tigers don’t kill people because they are a**holes, they do it because they are wild animals. The more we encroach into wild areas and build up human population the more we will dwindle the numbers and eventually will lose all wild animals.”
Nicholas Larson: “Looks like it was an accident to me. Trying to hold the tiger down with the bucket was a dumb idea, but people are making it sound like they killed it on purpose.”

Lindy Lou: “The tiger killed 2 humans. If that was a mountain lion in America it would have been killed. (Which it should be). Sounds to me like the guy was trying to HELP capture it. Accidents happen, not sure why everyone is so outraged. Smh”

The tiger was nicknamed T-28, and some testimonies claim that the tiger broke his tooth on the excavator machine and lost a lot of blood.

Bengal tigers are an endangered species, reported National Geographic.

The publication goes on to report that the tragic death of the tiger and those who were killed by the tiger represents what can happen when humans and animals live too close in proximity.

[Featured Image by InnaVar/Shutterstock]