Tiger enters village near Bandhavgarh reserve, kills woman; dies during rescue

A tiger entered a residential area near the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria district in the early hours of Sunday, 24 May, killing a woman and injuring three others before dying during a rescue operation, officials said.

The incident took place at around 3.00 am in Kherwa Tola locality of Panpatha village near the reserve. The episode triggered protests by local residents, who, alleging repeated tiger attacks in the area, reportedly assaulted a forest ranger and manhandled a woman forest staffer.

Speaking to PTI, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve field director Anupam Sahay said the tiger entered the village and attacked residents, killing 40-year-old Phool Bai Pal and injuring three others.

According to him, the tiger later entered the victim’s house, where it died during the rescue effort. “When we darted the tiger to tranquilise it, it showed no response, indicating that it may already have been dead,” Sahay said, rejecting claims that the animal died from a tranquiliser overdose.

He said a postmortem examination was underway to determine the exact cause of the tiger’s death.

Sahay alleged that protesting villagers, angered by recurring tiger attacks, assaulted forest ranger Prateek Shrivastava, causing injuries, and also manhandled a woman forest department employee. Villagers, however, claimed forest officials failed to respond in time despite repeated appeals for help after the tiger entered the locality.

The protests also delayed the rescue operation, with demonstrators allegedly preventing officials from taking the woman’s body for postmortem for more than two hours. Sahay said the injured victims would receive free medical treatment along with Rs 500 per day towards hospitalisation expenses.

Congress leader and Janpad Panchayat member Roshni Singh Dhurve later visited the village and helped calm the protesters, sources said. Officials said police personnel had been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure.

In a post on X, chief minister Mohan Yadav announced financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh for the family of the deceased woman. He also directed officials to ensure free treatment and compensation for those injured.

In a separate recent case of human-animal conflict, four women collecting tendu leaves were killed in a tiger attack in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district on Friday morning.

With PTI inputs