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A man and his nephew were killed by a tiger in Sindewahi tahsil of Chandrapur district on Tuesday. This is first time in many years that more than one person has been killed by a tiger in a single attack.
Chandrapur Chief Conservator of Forest N R Praveen said, “Kamlakar Undirwade, 60, and his nephew Durwas Undirwade, 48, both residents of Pawanpur village in Sindewahi tahsil, were found dead in a tiger attack in the Pawanpur beat in Bramhapuri division. Both had gone to the forest to collect mahua flowers early in the morning.”
Asked if the two were possibly at the same place when the tiger attacked, Praveen said, “There was no witness although one more family member was around collecting mahua flowers. So it’s possible that one of them might have been attacked first and the other one was subsequently attacked when he might have tried to come to the first victim’s rescue. The bodies, however, were lying 200 metres apart, which may have been due to one of the bodies being dragged by the tiger.”
Big cat attacks on humans go up substantially in summer months, when villagers enter the forest in large numbers to collect mahua flowers and tendu leaves. While mahua flowers are used for some food preparations as well as distilling liquor, tendu leaves are used to wrap tobacco in beedi manufacturing.
With Tuesday’s incident, the number of human deaths in tiger attacks in Chandrapur district this year so far has gone up to 11.
The last time two persons died in tiger attack was about 16 years ago in Chimur tahsil of the district, when a farmer couple was killed.