NEW DELHI - A woman was mauled to death by a tiger when she entered a forest near the Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand to collect fuel wood, officials said Thursday.

The incident took place Wednesday at the Sarpduli forest range, just outside the park.

The woman, in her 40s, was with five other women when the tiger attacked her. The others escaped, forest range officer D.K. Pandey told IANS.

Residents of Garjia village, where the victim lived, have demanded that the tiger be captured dead or alive. People took to the streets to protest the killing, said Sanjay Chhimwal, who works at a nearby resort.

An expert from Ramnagar has been called to tranquilize the animal, officials said.

According to villagers there are two tigers in the area. It was the older one that killed the woman.

The incident comes barely a week after forest officials arrested five people for killing a tiger in Fathepur range of the Corbett reserve. Four of their accomplices are on the run.

‘The poachers confessed to killing the tiger Jan 24. We have seized tiger bones and the skin from their hideout in Khanjar basti in Ramnagar area,’ Pandey said.