Not long after a tiger mauled a class 12 student to death in a Delhi zoo last month, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a man-eater tigress in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor district.
The incident occurred on Sunday when the tigress attacked the boy while he was playing outside his house. Though his parents managed to scare the tigress away to the forest, they failed to save their child who had suffered head injuries and was bleeding profusely.
"A 10-year boy has been killed by a wild animal. I went to the spot with my staff. There are teeth and claw marks on the back of the boy's head," Business Standard quoted forest official Irfan Ali as saying.
However, forest officials are sceptical about villagers' description of the incident as they could not find any pug marks near the child's house.
"People told us that a tigress attacked him but we are probing the incident. We can confirm something only after probe and examining the pugmarks," he added.
The attacks by wild cats in the district is reportedly an old story. Bijnor has alone witnessed seven deaths because of tiger attacks in over two months—between 29 December 2013 and 6 February 2014, The Times of India reported.
Such incidents are witnessed time and again as the wild animals are being forced away from their habitat due to deforestation. Tigers and other carnivorous animals ponder into human settlements in search of food, as a result of which humans become their victim in their own surroundings.
