Another M’rashtra woman mauled to death ‘by tiger’

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, November 10

Days after the Maharashtra forest department got a tigress shot for allegedly killing at least 13 persons, another big cat is suspected to have killed a woman on Friday night.

According to the state police, Sakhubai Kasture, 55, from Pendhri village in Chandrapur district was found killed by a tiger or a leopard on Saturday morning. She had gone to work at a farm in the forest on Friday but had not returned till late in the night. On Saturday morning, teams of villagers went to look for her but found Sakhubai's badly mauled remains in the forest near Sawali tehsil, police said.

Officials said pug marks of a big cat were found near her body.

The forest located near the Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve often has big cats out on the prowl late in the night, officials said.

Forest officials say tigers and other big cats often attack humans suspecting them to be smaller animals especially if they are found squatting in forests. However, the human victims are eaten only if tigers have turned man-eaters.

Recently, a tigress named Avni, who was believed to have killed 13 people in Yavatmal district, was shot by the state government leading to protests from animal rights activists.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a probe following allegations that Avni was shot dead when she could have been tranquilised and moved to a zoo.