Bengaluru: Tensions are running high in a tiny village named – Hadanuru – located just outside the Bandipur Tiger Reserve after a tiger killed a villager and devoured him on Tuesday noon. The incident happened when the victim, Shivaiah G, aged about 50, was grazing his cattle along the forest boundary.
According to eye witnesses, Shivaiah was last seen when he was sitting on a rock and the tiger attacked him from behind. The tiger held his neck and dragged him about 20 metres inside the forest crossing over the country trench. Shocked by this, other grazers alerted the villagers who took up a rescue mission inside the forest. The villagers saw the tiger sitting on the body of Shivaiah and devouring his body parts.
Angered by this, the villagers started pelting stones at the cat, triggering another attack in which two villagers were injured. One of the injured villagers was shifted to Apollo hospital in Mysore, after he sustained wounds on his head. Forest and police officials who resumed another rescue mission managed to approach the tiger and victim’s body but were unable to tranquilise the tiger. Two shots that were fired at the tiger missed their aim, but the cat ran inside the forest leaving the body of Shivaiah.
Tensions began when family members and villagers refused to take the body demanding that the Forest Minister Mr Ramanath Rai should come to village and the tiger responsible for killing Shivaiah must be shot dead. The body has been now shifted to Hediyala hospital and a postmortem will be conducted on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile the Forest Department has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family members of the victim.
The forest officials from the Bandipur reserve are now guarding the borders of the village, which abuts the Hediyala Wildlife Range of the Reserve. Incidentally, two weeks ago, a tiger had attacked and injured a villager when some of the cattle grazers tried to go close to the tiger which was feeding on a goat. However it is not confirmed whether the same tiger is now involved in the attack that took place on Tuesday.
“As of now we are working with the villagers to ensure that the tiger is captured and removed from the area. We have fixed multiple camera traps along the border in Hediyala range to observe movements of the tiger. The camera traps will also help to ensure that the right tiger is captured,” said Mr Ravi Ralph, the Chief Wildlife Warden of the state.
Villagers to blame: Experts
Wildlife experts working closely with Bandipur Reserve squarely blame the villagers and the Forest Department for Tuesday’s incident. The foresters should have increased border patrolling along Hediyala after the recent incident of a tiger straying into a village and catching a goat.
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