Ooty: For the third consecutive year, the hills here faced man-eater scourge in the early part of the year. The mutilated and partly eaten body of farmhand Maghu Hora, 49, was found about 500 metres from his house in the labour quarters of Woodbriar tea estate in Devarshola near Gudalur early Saturday, triggering chilling recount of the two man-eaters that had spread terror in the Nilgiris sometime back.
While a man-eater tiger had killed a man and two women east of Doddabetta slopes near Ooty in January 2014 before being shot dead, another man-eater killed a woman at Pandalur in February last year and was gunned down.
According to Gudalur assistant conservator of forests Pushpakaran, farmhand Hora, a native of Jharkand working in a private tea estate in Woodbriar, had left home Friday evening to answer nature’s call and did not return. His wife Sumari did not report his missing as he was in the habit of frequently quarreling with her in drunken state and spending the night outside.
