A desperate search has been launched for a tiger which has killed eight people in two years.
The predator mauled to death a 70-year-old villager in India on Monday after he went to get firewood from a forest in Khambada, approximately 410 miles from Mumbai.
Deputy Conservator of Forest Arvind Mundhe told the Indian Express the tiger pounced on the man, who has been named as Maroti Pendam.
It is understood family members and other villagers went to look for Pendam when he didn't return that night.
The next morning, they found his remains, some of which had been eaten by the tiger.
Marks on the tiger suggest it has already killed seven others in the past.
"We have been trying to capture the tiger using tranquilliser darts but with no success," N.R. Praveen, a forest official in Maharashtra state, said.
According to The Indian Express, it was the second human death in reported big cat attacks within a week, after the first was reported on October 1 in which a leopard killed an 11-year-old boy in Brahmapuri tehsil of the same district.
Reports claim the tiger killed its first victim on January 18 2019, and along with killing eight, has also injured three others.
The same tiger killed another person in Virur village on September 26, according to reports.
Tigers have killed many people in India in the past.
In 2018, a tigress believed to have killed 13 people was shot dead after a huge hunt.
Some of her victims were decapitated as they were mauled to death in the western state of Maharashtra.
The animal, known as T-1, is said to have to have killed 10 people in the space of 20 months since 2016, while her most recent victims were killed in August 2018.
Animal rights campaigners had called for the tiger's life to be spared.
T-1 was killed near Borati village, with the Forestry Department saying a single shot killed her after she charged at a patrol vehicle, having been hit by a tranquiliser dart.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, A. K. Mishra, told the Indian Express there were several "fleeting" sightings of the animal before she was shot.
He said: "Finally, at around 1pm, one of our forest staffers managed to dart her with a tranquiliser gun.
"But she charged at the team, forcing Asgar to shoot in self-defence."
However vet Prayag Hodigere Siddalingappa said the shooting was not legal, stating: "It’s a murder, poaching."
