Angul: Tension ran high in Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary in Angul district after an elderly man, a farmer, was allegedly mauled by Royal Bengal tigress Sundari near Tainsi village Sunday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Trinath Sahu, 60. Villagers said Sahu had gone to a nullah for fishing in the wee hours when the tigress suddenly attacked and killed him. They also claimed the tigress had devoured a portion of his waist and shoulder.
On being informed, a team of Forest officials led by additional conservator of forest reached the village. Angered by the incident, the villagers reportedly thrashed them and detained assistant conservator of forests (ACF) Srikant Behera, who visited Tainsi in the morning to take stock of the situation on receipt of the information.
Besides, the villagers vandalised the van of Angul superintendent of police, who reached the spot after getting information about the incident. The angry villagers detained five forest officials engaged to track movement of the cub and locked them in a house.
“Some of our staff members, who visited the spot for investigation, were detained and attacked by the villagers. We do not refute the killing by an animal but we will soon establish the exact reason behind the incident,” informed Angul divisional forest officer V Kartik.
Not satisfied with the assurances, the irate villagers staged a demonstration demanding immediate translocation of the tigress, compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the bereaved families and job for a kin of the deceased and scrapping of cases filed against people who had set a beat house afire after the death of a woman of Hatibari who was allegedly killed by the tigress recently.
Three platoons of police were deployed to maintain law and order in the village. The villagers said they had seen the tigress moving near the village after killing the man.
Hours after mauling Trinath, the Royal Bengal tigress reportedly attacked a local journalist and left him wounded. The victim, identified as Raghunath Sahu, reporter of a private news channel, had gone to the spot to collect information about the incident when he was attacked. The injured reporter has been admitted to Angul district headquarters hospital in a critical condition, said the sources.
Prior to this incident, the tigress had attempt to kill a motorcyclist who managed to escape near a bridge in Tarabha inside Satkosia sanctuary under Purunakote police limits in Angul district Saturday.
The man was identified as Sanjay Pradhan of Hinjadoli in Tainsi panchayat. According to Sanjay, he was on his way to Hatibari village when he noticed some forest officials and a monitoring team near the bridge.
He then noticed the tigress and tried to speed away but the animal leaped on him. However, he had a close shave after the claws of the tigress landed on his pillion instead of him.
It may be pertinent to mention here that Sundari had allegedly mauled a 35-year-old woman to death at Hatibari village September 12 when she was taking bath in a pond near the forest. The incident triggered violence as scores of villagers demanded relocation of the tigress.
Fumed over the death, the locals had torched the forest beat house at Hatibari and the forest department’s range office. They had also set five boats belonging to the forest department ablaze.
Later, the post-mortem report of the deceased woman revealed that the death was caused due to asphyxia and wounds caused by wild animal.
Prior to the incident, Sundari had strayed into human settlements in Athmallik forest range and picked a calf at Bipradiha after crossing an Chanagodi Nullah which was in spate September 2. Twelve days later, she was back in the village and killed five cattle.
In the wake of these incidents, a team of experts from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau had arrived at Satkosia and monitored the movement and behaviour of the tigress for three days.
As Sundari did not show any sign of leaving the human settlements, the forest officials decided to either tranquilise or trap her in a cage. However, much to their relief, she moved inside the core area on the night of October 3.
However, a week after residing inside the core area, she again strayed into the human settlement and killed a bullock on the outskirts of Hatibari village October 11.
The Royal Bengal Tigress was brought from the Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh June 28 and was released into the core area of Satkosia Tiger Reserve August 18.