Beijing, Dec 22: The last Indochinese tiger in China was killed and eaten by a man, who has been sentenced to 12 years' jail.

Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, came across the tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near China's border with Laos.

Wannian has claimed that he killed the tiger after dark in self-defense and did not know it was an endangered Indochinese tiger, The Telegraph reported.

Only around 1,300 to 1,800 Indochinese tigers are estimated to be living in the wild, and the tiger killed by Kang was thought to be the only Indochinese tiger ever seen in China.

It was reported that Kang's father had his face bitten by a wild bear in 1979 when Kang was seven, and his brother was trampled to death by a wild elephant in 1995.

Four villagers who helped Kang dismember the tiger and ate its meat were also sentenced from three to four years for "covering up and concealing criminal gains".