Woman who entered forest for firewood killed by tiger in Tadoba-Andheri reserve
Moharli’s range forest officer Santosh Thipe said the woman’s body has been sent for postmortem examination
NAGPUR: A 32-year-old woman who ventured into the Devada jungle in the Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve (TATR) to collect firewood was killed by a tiger on Tuesday, people aware of the matter said. She is the 12th person in the district to die due to tiger attacks this year.
The incident took place in the Moharli forest range when Chandra Chikram (32) from Devada village in Chandrapur district went into the jungle to collect firewood. Moharli’s range forest officer Santosh Thipe, who travelled to the location where the woman died, confirmed that the woman was killed in a tiger attack. Her body has been sent for post-mortem examination.
Thipe said the woman’s husband has been given an ex-gratia assistance of ₹50,000 and villagers have been cautioned to stay away from the jungle. A group of village youth have been formed as the primary response team to monitor predator activity near the village.
Camera traps have also been set up in the vicinity of the attack site to identify the tiger responsible for the fatal encounter.
Forest officials said 22 fatalities were reported in 2023 due to predator attacks as compared to 53 casualties in 2022 of which 46 were attributed to tiger attacks and 7 to leopard attacks.
Wildlife expert SSN Rao said there was an increase in the frequency of such man-animal conflicts and underlined that steps should be taken to minimise such unfortunate incidents in the future.
TATR, one of the country’s oldest national parks, spanning 1,727 sq km, has garnered attention recently for its commendable efforts in big cat conservation, with over 30 tiger cubs born last year alone. Apart from being home to around 140 tigers, it also has wild dogs, leopards, sloth bears, bison, hyenas, and jungle cats.
The tiger reserve was also in news recently over 150 tourists, drivers, and guides in 20 safari vehicles inadvertently cornered a tigress named Roma (T-114), prompting the authorities to suspend 10 wildlife guides and 10 safari vehicles. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) also took a dim view of the incident.
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