Tiger kills shepherd in Chandrapur district; 6th such incident in two months

Chandrapu: A tiger attacked and killed a shepherd in Mul tehsil of Maharashtra's Chandrapur district on Thursday in the sixth such incident in nearly two months, said a senior forest department officer.

According to the officer, the deceased was identified as Devaji Warlu Raut, a resident of the Chicholi area in Mul tehsil, some 44km away from the district headquarters.

Raut along with a group of shepherds had gone to forests for grazing cattle when a lurking tiger suddenly attacked and killed him on the spot at around noon, he said, quoting an eyewitness.

Another shepherd, Bhauji Neware, who was part of the group, rushed to Chicholi and narrated the incident to villagers, who in turn, alerted forest department personnel.

Forest department staffers found the victim's body inside thick forests and sent it to a rural hospital at Mul for post-mortem, said the officer.

A team led by Buffer Zone Forest Range Officer Rahul Karekar later visited the attack spot.

This was the sixth incident where a villager was killed by a tiger in Mul tehsil since August, informed another officer.

Since the beginning of 2024, as many as 14 persons have been killed in tiger attacks under the Chandrapur forest circle, he said.

The district in the eastern part of the Vidarbha region houses the famous Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve.