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A tiger that is believed to have killed three villagers in the past week in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has been caught, a senior official said.

The animal has been shot with tranquilisers and put in a cage, C Srinivasan told ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Hindi.

Angry locals who are demanding compensation for the families of those killed are preventing forest officials from removing the cage, he said.

A fourth fatality in recent days is being blamed on another tiger.

The killings have created tension in up to 20 villages and on Wednesday, angry farmers vandalised a forest department office and set fire to two jeeps.

The Bandipur tiger reserve in Karnataka state is one end of a huge forest sanctuary that cuts across three states of southern India.

According to a 2011 census, there are about 1,700 tigers left in the wild in India.

It is thought India had 100,000 tigers a century ago but there has been a serious decline in numbers since then. Poaching and shrinking habitats are blamed.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says that tigers often compete with villagers living close to the reserves for resources, often leading to direct conflict.