Man jailed for eating 'last' Indochinese tiger

Beijing, Dec 22: A local court has reportedly sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for killing and eating the what could have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China.

A local web portal Yunnan.cn reported that the court sentenced the man, identified as Kang Wannian, to 10 years for killing a rare animal, in addition to two years for illegal possession of firearms.

Kang was also slapped with a fine of 70,000 dollars.

The report also added that the four villagers, who helped Kang dismember the tiger and ate its meat, were also sentenced for three to four years in prison for 'covering up and concealing criminal gains'.

Kang, a villager from Mengla in the Yunnan Province, who saw the tiger in Feb 2009 while gathering freshwater clams in a natural reserve near China's border, claims to have killed it in self defence.

The tiger was last seen and photographed in 2007 at the same reserve.

According to a report published earlier this month in Yunnan-based newspaper Life News, the only known wild Indochinese tiger in China has not been seen since Kang's meal.

However, the report quotes provincial Forestry Bureau as saying that there is no proof to establish that the tiger was the last wild Indochinese tiger in China.

OneIndia News