Shepherd mauled to death by tiger at Bandhavgarh

A 48-year old shepherd was mauled to death by a tiger outside Bandhavgarh National Park (BNP) on Saturday evening.Furious villagers blocked the main road leading to district headquarters demanding action against the forest officials. Deceased has been identified as Sonelal Rai, a resident of Dhamokar village. Sources said incident took place at Parasimod area at around 4 pm.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has demanded immediate removal of field director Murlikrishnan holding him accountable for the incident.Dubey while talking to The Pioneer said, “This incident is a result of mismanagement. Patrolling party of the reserve failed to track tiger movement leading to this incident and the field director had been ignorant.”

Villagers claim this was the fifth incident in the region area while forest officers had been overlooking their repeated plea to shift the ‘man-eater’ tiger. They say the matter was taken to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also, but in vain.On October 24, 2014 a school teacher was killed by a tiger in Khitoli area of Bandhavgarh National Park triggering violent protests by locals who went on a rampage setting the forest range office and nine houses on fire. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC were issued to bring situation under control. Deceased identified as Amod lakda, 45, a native of Chhattisgarh was, attacked by the tiger near Khitoli dam located in the buffer zone where he had gone for a picnic with some of his friends.

On July 22, 2014 a 45-year-old man was mauled to death by a tigress and its cubs at buffer zone of Bandhavgarh National Park, Katni district. Deceased was identified as Ramdas Baiga, resident of Baghdhari village. He had left his home at 5.30 pm to search for his missing buffalo in BNP’s Khatoli range and did not return.