Tiger mauls woman to death, crocodile bites man’s hand

HD Kote (Mysore), August 26: A 45-year-old tribal woman was mauled to death by a tiger and a crocodile bit the hand of a man in two separate incidents in the taluk on Saturday.

Mahadevamma, who was grazing her goats and sheep in the forest, went to a house at Bommalapura hadi in the taluk seeking water to drink. The tiger, which was hiding nearby, pounced on the goat and injured it in the stomach. Hearing the goat’s cries, Mahadevamma came running to the spot and the big cat attacked her too. The tiger broke the woman’s neck.

Cry for help

Soon, the woman’s grandson Ramesh and others cried out for help. The frightened tiger abandoned the body and fled. Even as Ramesh and the others came out of the forest to gather help, the big cat pulled the body to a distance of 300 metres. A group of villagers then entered the forest only to see the tiger devouring Mahadevamma’s body.

Even as they shooed the tiger away, the forest department personnel arrived at the spot and stood guard over the body. The tribals have demanded that the woman’s family be provided suitable compensation as the place came under the buffer zone of the forest and there was provision for the tribals to enter there.

They said there had been a number of incidents in the recent past of the tiger preying on livestock. Their pleas to the forest department for help had fallen on deaf ears, they said. The tribals later held a road block protest in support of their demands.

MLA Chikkanna, tahsildar D?S?Shivakumaraswamy, assistant conservator of forests Thammaiah and others visited the spot.

Crocodile attack

In the other incident, a crocodile bit the hand of Suresh, when he was washing his hands in River Kapila at Bidugalu village in the taluk on Friday. The incident occurred when Suresh took his sheep to the river to drink water. The crocodile first preyed on one of the sheep.

The reptile then attacked another sheep and bit the hand of Suresh in the process. He was given first aid at the H?D Kote government hospital and later admitted at K R?Hospital in Mysore for treatment. Zonal forest officer Mohan Kumar visited Suresh at the hospital.