In a disturbing incident, a woman Forest Guard was mauled to death by a tigress in the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur district of eastern Maharashtra.
The incident took place when woman forest guard Swati Dumane (31) was conducting tiger count along with three other beat colleagues from Kolara Forest Range of TATR, was conducting a tiger count in the vicinity.
Confirming the “unfortunate” death of Swati Dumane, Dr. Jitendra Ramgaonkar, Chief Conservator of Forests, TATR said that the incident took place when they were carrying out a sign survey as part of the ongoing All India Tiger Estimation-2022 exercise.
“After trekking nearly 4 kilometers from the Kolara gate till compartment No 97 inside the TATR core area, Dumane and her team saw a tigress sitting on the path ahead of them.
Having waited for almost half an hour for the tigress to move, they took a detour through a thick patch of the forest.
Upon noticing the human movements, the tigress followed them and attacked Dumane from the rear side. Dumane was moving behind the three beat helpers,” Dr Ramgaonkar said.
“Even before the three helpers could realise as to what was happening, the tigress fatally mauled Dumane and dragged her body deep inside the jungle,” Dr Ramgaonkar said
Shortly afterwards, the beat helpers reported the matter to the seniors outside the forest who rushed to the spot and managed to trace out Dumane’s body from a thickly wooded area where it was abandoned by the tigress.
Meanwhile, Dumane’s body has been sent for autopsy at the Government Hospital at Chimur.
Following the incident, the TATR suspended the AITE-2022 exercise of sign survey and transect walk on foot till further orders ``We are taking precautions to ensure against recurrence of such incidents,” Dr Ramgaonkar said.
Dumane, who hailed from the neighbouring Gadchiroli district, is survived by her husband and a 4-year-old daughter. She joined the Forest Department service in 2011. The TATR foundation has released an ex-gratia of Rs.5-lakh for her family.
Dumane’s final rites were performed with full honours on Saturday evening.