Three tiger cubs killed by train

NEW DELHI: Three eight-month-old tiger cubs have been killed by a train in western India, forest rangers said on Friday.

"The cubs were hit by a train early on Thursday and their mangled remains were recovered and sent for post-mortem," A.K. Mishra from Maharashtra state’s forestry department told AFP. Their bodies were spotted in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district, which is famous for a thriving tiger population.

"The incident is extremely unusual and we have not spotted their mother yet and will cremate them soon," Mishra said. India has launched a major campaign to boost tiger numbers. At the last tiger census in 2014 the population had risen to more than 2,200 from a low of less than 1,500.

But as urban areas have expanded in the country of 1.25 billion people, conflict between humans and tigers has worsened. Poaching is also a concern. A controversy is meanwhile raging about the death in early November of a tiger believed to have killed more than a dozen villagers, also in Maharashtra. The tigress was shot after a months-long search using paragliders, infrared cameras, sharpshooters on elephants and even Calvin Klein perfume.