Tiger mauls 40-year-old man to death in Tadoba; third incident this month

Nagpur: A tiger mauled an industrial worker to death – the third such incident in this month – on Friday morning in the Lohara forest range of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, Chandrapur.

According to the state wildlife office, the victim – identified as Purushottam Bopche, 40 – went inside the jungle to pick up some wildflowers. When Bopche, a resident of Indira Nagar, Lohara, did not return home till the afternoon, his wife went to search for him in the jungle with her husband’s friend and found his body near the Chandrapur-Mul road in the Tadoba buffer zone.

“After getting information about the death of Bopche, the officials of the forest and police department reached the spot. Panchnama was done and the body was handed over to the family,” chief conservator of forests, Chandrapur circle, Jitendra Ramgaonkar, said.

On April 26, a 70-year-old woman was killed in a tiger attack under the Saoli forest range in Chandrapur district near the buffer zone of the tiger sanctuary. The victim, Mamta Bodalkar – a resident of Wagholi-Butti village, around 60 kilometres from Chandrapur – had gone to farmland to protect crops from wild animals when a tiger attacked her around noon.

Similarly, on April 18, a middle-aged woman was mauled and killed by a tiger near Saoli, adjacent to the famous Tadoba tiger reserve when she was sleeping outside her home in Virkhalchak village. The big cat killed the woman, identified as Mandabai Sidam, 53.

With the death of Bopche, the toll of tiger victims in the district reached 10 since January this year. As many as 53 people were killed in tiger and leopard attacks in Chandrapur district in 2022.