Amidst a shocking incident, a 22-year-old tribal man was attacked and killed by a tiger in Telangana’s Kumram Bheem-Asifabad on Wednesday.
The unfortunate incident took place in the outskirts of Digida village of Dahegaon Mandal. The area is covered by a thick forest and is a famous –tiger corridor between Telangana and Maharashtra.
November 11th started with the victim, Sidam Vignesh, and his two other friends going to the forest area’s Peddavagu river for fishing. Bolishetti Naveen and Sidam Srikanth were back from the water body to gather leaves for placing the caught fish into them when they suddenly encountered the tiger attacking Vignesh, the youngster’s friends said while recalling the terrific tale.
According to the duo, the tiger leapt onto Vignesh and dragged him away, biting into him with his teeth. The man most likely died after the first attack itself.
Although Naveen and Sidam were shocked to death, they hamper scampered and alerted the villagers who hurriedly reached the told area in large numbers to look for Vignesh. They then found the partially eaten body of Vignesh, seemingly abandoned by the big cat. Upon seeing the sight, they immediately informed the police and forest officials.
Local tribals of the area say that the tiger was in the forest some days back. Recently, the big cats from the Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve were transferred to the forests of the neighbouring Asifabad and Kagaznagar. The news of the tiger and his presence had already brought a sea of terror in the hearts of the residents of the village.
When Dahegaon cops and Rebenna forest officials reached the area, a senior official said that they found claw marks on the victim’s body along with pug stamps on the ground which pointed to the act committed by a tiger. The official added that the victim’s family will be provided a compensatory amount of Rs.5 lakh by the authorities.
Another forest official, Purnima, although confirmed that a tiger had indeed attacked the man, she said that it hasn’t been established as to whether the tiger pounced on Vignesh on his own or the trio of friends had provoked him through some means which led him to do so.
“The big cats inhabiting in this wild are not undergoing stress and never harmed humans. An inquiry will be ordered into the incident. It’s a first kill by the tiger in the district”, she said.
According to the forest officials, villagers try to capture videos and photos of the big cats in order to post it on social networking sites. Acts like these can irritate the tigers which then attack humans in this way. There an earlier episode of a man-animal dispute in the district several years back.
Some locals, however, believed that Vignesh was killed by the man-eating tiger, RT-1. However, it was captured last month and shifted to a secure place, said Kawal Tiger Reserve field director CP Vinod Kumar.
