A fishing cat was found dead in Hooghly’s Konnagar on Monday evening. Forest officials suspect residents killed it thinking that it was a tiger.
Some witnesses have apparently told the officers that men armed with sticks and bamboo shafts attacked the animal.
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The fishing cat is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, which means it faces a high threat of extinction.
On Monday morning, footage of a CCTV camera installed on a building in Konnnagar showed an animal walking past a truck. It triggered a scare with residents thinking that the animal was a tiger. As word spread, several residents even claimed to have heard the roar of a tiger.
A forest official said the animal caught on camera was a fishing cat.
