BENGKALIS

A tiger attacked, killed and part-ate a man as he worked on a palm oil plantation, one of the crops blamed for stripping the big cats’ habitat, an official said.

The Sumatran tiger severely mauled the 35-year-old man on Tuesday in the Bengkalis district of Riau province, local conservation agency head Danis Woro said.

“He was working on his palm oil plantation when a tiger suddenly appeared and attacked him,” he said.

The tiger devoured some of the man’s organs before it was driven away the following morning, local media reports said.

Human-animal conflicts are a growing problem in the country, as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for crops like palm oil, forcing animals such as tigers and elephants into closer contact with people.

There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, according to the environmental group WWF.

Last month a Sumatran tiger killed an 18-year-old rubber plantation worker, also in Riau province in Sumatra.