[kellyhound]

Fear gripped over a dozen villages in Tumsar range of Bhandara forest division after a tiger attacked three persons on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border around noon on Saturday.

One of the victims had a lucky escape in Binaki village after the tiger had a him in a tight grip. But a big crowd, which had gathered at the spot, pelted stones and managed to drive the tiger away. Not many forest and police officials were present to control the restive crowd.

The injured persons have been identified as Shankar Turkar (40) from Pandharwani in MP, Chhotelal Thakre (35), a resident of Gondekhari (Bhandara), and Virendra Sahare (45) from Sindpuri (Tumsar).

Video of the tiger crossing a road, striding across farms and attacking a man was widely circulated on the social media.

All were admitted to a primary health centre at Sihora from where they were shifted to Bhandara district hospital. On January 18, one more person named Ganesh Bankar from Gondekhari was injured by the tiger.

After this incident, forest officials burst crackers to push the tiger towards the forest. The aerial distance between the two spots where the attacks took place is 6km.

According to Sawan Bahekar, president of Gondia’s NGO Sustaining Environment and Wildlife Assemblage (SEWA), the chased tiger is a young dispersing male from Khairlanji range in MP.

“The unfortunate incident is a fallout of lack of strong monitoring and coordination between Maharashtra and MP forest officials,” alleged Bahekar.

In a late night press release, Bhandara deputy conservator of forest (DyCF) Vivek Hoshing said efforts are on to capture the tiger. “For the past eight days, it is moving in cluster of forest and farms connecting Binaki, Sukli, Gondekhari, Sihora and Chulhad villages. The spot where it attacked a villager last Saturday is 5km from today’s incident,” he said.

After the tiger was sighted on Saturday noon, a crowd started gathering to scare it away. Though forest and police officials swung into action, they failed to control the mob which had a free run. “After allowing the situation to go out of hand, forest officials want to capture the innocent animal.
This is unacceptable. There is no record of cattle or human kill against this tiger. The latest attacks were due to poor mob mentality,” added Bahekar.
SEWA volunteers are monitoring two tigers since January 7.

These tigers are suspected to have entered Tumsar and Tiroda forest ranges from neighbouring MP.

One tiger quietly moved towards Nagzira-Waraseoni after entering Tiroda and Gondia range. The one involved in the attack came into limelight on Saturday.

[KC]

Maharashtra

One lucky SOB

[William May]

Surprised he is out in the daytime. I thought tigers hunted at night and slept during the day.