An elderly man was attacked and mauled to death by a tiger in Kurai block of Seoni on Friday morning. The area comes under Ghatkohka buffer zone of Pench Tiger Reserve. Reserve Field Director Vikram Singh Parihar said, “The elderly man was picking Mahua when a tiger attacked him and went back to jungle.” He further said that tiger was sighted in the area for a few days but the deceased went there alone to pick Mahua. He said process of releasing compensatory amount of Rs 4 lakh has been started.

 

Aggrieved with the incident, local villagers started pelting stone at the forest team. They were protesting the tiger attack but later forest officials pacified them. The Director said that the team has been assigned to trace the tiger and find his location.

 

Deceased Ghasiram (65) went to the jungle to get Mahua when the tiger attacked him. When he screamed, villagers gathered and the tiger left his body at a certain distance. Tehsildar Gaurishankar Sharma and Kurrai Police Station In-charge Manoj Gupta reached the spot and asked villagers to understand the situation. A compensatory amount of Rs 10,000 was given to deceased family. Further Rs 3.90 lakh will be given to the family after completing formalities.

Locals of the area said tiger sighting has become common in the area. They said in the past six months, four incidents have been reported of man-animal conflict. Four people have died in previous incidents. About three months back, tiger had killed a woman in the same village.

A young leopard strayed into Bargawa area of Karahal development block under Sheopur district. The leopard attacked four people, including a child. The injured have been admitted to District Hospital for further treatment. Locals of the area are scared of leopard and they prefer to stay indoors. The incident took place on Thursday night. Forest team was informed about the incident and then search operation was started on Friday morning.

 

Forest team has been deployed to trace the leopard. According to reports, leopard attacked Bhuraand Jangla Pateria who was walking in the village. When they started shouting, villagers gathered at the place and leopard ran away towards the jungle. Both suffered injuries and were taken to Karahal Hospital. After half-an-hour of the incident, leopard strayed into Ghadala village close to Karahal and attacked two people, including a child. They were also taken to hospital for further treatment.