BAREILLY:
Amid concerted efforts to shift the big cats of Pilibhit's
Mala forest range away from human habitats, a fresh case of man-tiger
conflict was reported from an adjoining village on Wednesday, leading to
angry villagers surrounding the sugarcane fields where a tigress and
her cubs were suspected to be hiding.
Rajendra Prasad, a
27-year-old farmer, was mauled by a tigress on Wednesday when he was
working on his field in Basantapur village. Although Prasad survived
with injuries, anxious villagers surrounded the field in a bid to put an
end to the frequent attacks. They were stopped from harming the
endangered animals by local forest officials.
"It seems the
tigress mauled the farmer for the safety of her cubs," M P Singh, the
chief conservator of forest, Bareilly division, said.
A team comprising forest officials and the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF) staffers has been trying to push the tigress and her cubs into the
deep forest area with the help of elephants, crackers and air-fire.
Forest officials say there might also be a tiger lurking around.
"We have managed to bring these big cats to the fringes of the forest,"
said Naresh Kumar Lodhi, project officer, WWF India. "We will continue
our operation and will move them to the dense part of the forest."
In February, two farmers were injured by tigers in two separate
villages - Bhimsen and Marauri - adjoining the same forest range.
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