The male Royal Bengal tiger was shot after it charged villagers in Morigaon district, 60 kilometres (38 miles) from Assam's largest city Guwahati, they said.

It first killed a woman and a man in Habiborongabari village and then charged at others who had gathered at the site, witnesses in the village told AFP by telephone.

"We tried our best to tranquillise the tiger, but it was getting out of control. We feared more casualties so we were left with no option but to shoot it," a forest ranger said, requesting not to be named.

India's tiger population has shrunk to about 1,400, from about 3,700 estimated to be alive in 2002 and the 40,000 estimated to be roaming across the country at the time of independence from Britain in 1947.

Experts say encroachments into wildlife habitats are often the reason for tiger-human conflicts in India and authorities are attempting to move villages out of designated tiger sanctuaries.

The deaths came during the world's first gathering of leaders from the 13 nations with wild tiger populations, who met in St. Petersburg in Russia on Sunday for a four-day summit.

They are trying to come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to save the tiger from extinction and double the big cat's numbers by 2022.

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