Pilibhit: In the Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh, a tiger killed a 50-year-old farmer and devoured more than 80% of his body. His remains were found in two sugarcane fields.
The deceased farmer has been identified as Lalta Prasad.
Lalta and his brother Kailash Chandra had gone to the field to work, but Kailash Chandra had gone back home to get some tools, leaving Lalta there alone when the attack happened.
When Kaislah came back, he looked for his brother but couldn't find him.
“When I noticed tiger pugmarks on the soil, I immediately called for help following which fellow villagers arrived at the spot," Kailash said.
“The following day, we found one partially eaten leg and part of a foot in an adjacent sugarcane field. Later, we found the rest of the half-eaten body parts -- excluding the head, trachea and right arm -- in another cane field located 250 metres away," he added.
According to Kapil Kumar, range officer of Puranpur circle, the site is approximately 1.5 km from the Mala forest range of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR).
Achal Kumar, the Station House Officer (SHO), and the sub-divisional magistrate of the Kalinagar circle came to calm the irate crowd that had blocked the road.
A team from the Wildlife Trust of India, led by biologist Zibran Ali, installed 10 camera traps around the attack site on the direction of Naveen Khandelwal, the divisional forest officer of PTR.
PTR and the forest and wildlife division have both dispatched field forest teams to keep an eye on the tiger's whereabouts.
“The pugmarks, measuring 14x14 cm, indicate that it was a male adult tiger,” said Ali.
The DFO said: “The family of the deceased will receive a compensation of Rs 5 lakhs.” —Inputs from Agencies