Sometimes he is seen in the darkness of the night. Sometimes he is seen in the daylight. Sometimes his footprints are frightening after his passing. If he was a part of a tiger reserve, then people would have been thrilled to see him, but since it is a village, a human-populated area, he is repeatedly making humans his prey. The pictures captured on camera fill people with fear. After wolves, now the fear of tiger has spread in Uttar Pradesh.
The man-eating tiger hiding in the sugarcane fields of Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh is targeting the villagers one by one. Within just a month, the tiger has taken four lives. In the latest incident, a 40-year-old man was killed by a tiger on Wednesday in Maheshpur range of South Kheri forest division of the district. This is the second such incident in just 15 days, in which a man has been killed by a man-eating animal.
The tiger attacked Zakir, a resident of Mooda Assi village, when he was working in his sugarcane field. This incident has caused outrage among the local villagers, who are demanding immediate action to catch the man-eating animal. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of South Kheri, Sanjay Biswal, has confirmed the human casualty in the tiger attack in Maheshpur range. Along with this, he has also told about his preparations.
Earlier, this tiger had killed a villager Ambrish Kumar on August 27. State Forest Minister Arun Kumar visited the area to assess the situation and instruct forest officials to capture the tiger. After this, the forest department has deployed patrol teams. Cages and cameras have been installed. Tranquillizing experts have been called to capture the man-eating animal. However, heavy rains and waterlogging have hampered these efforts.
According to the DFO, four patrol teams equipped with drone cameras and other equipment have been deployed. Four cages and 40 cameras have been installed in the affected areas to locate and monitor the tiger. Tranquillising experts led by Daksh Gangwar have been called from Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. A tranquillising expert has also been called from Kanpur Zoo. The DFO said that the movements of the tiger are being traced.
There is terror of tigers in about 50 villages of Lakhimpur district. People living in tiger-affected villages say that tigers come from the jungle to residential areas and farms every time the sugarcane crop grows tall, because they often find easy prey in the form of cattle, jackals and wild boars among these crops. But the real problem arises when tigers prey on humans working in sugarcane fields.
One special thing is that all the people who have been killed by the tiger so far were sitting and working in the fields and the tiger attacked from behind. But the tiger never targeted people standing and especially from the front. This suggests that perhaps tigers kill humans by deceit and not intentionally. However, this is not the first time when people are losing their lives due to tiger attacks in Lakhimpur Kheri. Many such incidents have happened before.
In Lakhimpur Kheri, which is surrounded by Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, tigers have been coming to such residential areas earlier also and killing people. Dudhwa Tiger Reserve alone near Lakhimpur Kheri has a population of more than 140 tigers, but the way these tigers are entering rural areas has become a big threat. On August 1, a tiger attacked a 10-year-old child in Kheri police station area. His body was found in a sugarcane field.
On August 2, a tiger killed a 9-year-old boy in Mainha village of Sharda Nagar police station area. The mutilated body of this child was also found in a sugarcane field. On August 4, a tiger captured a 12-year-old girl in the western beat of Gola police station. Later, the girl’s body was recovered from the field. On August 11, 64-year-old farmer Haripal of Bajaria village of Hyderabad police station area was attacked by a tiger, although he survived.
Thousands of people living in about 50 villages in Bahraich district, 130 km away from Lakhimpur district, have been unable to sleep for the last one and a half months. The reason is that no one knows when and from where a wolf will come and take away the child of which parent. The whole night passes in constant watchfulness. Somewhere people are guarding with sticks, somewhere they are trying to keep the man-eating wolves away from human population by bursting crackers.
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