An Indian mother fought off a tiger with her bare hands in order to save her child from the tiger’s jaws, a government official reported Wednesday. Sunday night, Archana Choudhary left her home in the central state of Madhya Pradesh because her 15-month-old son needed to relieve himself.
They were attacked by a tiger thought to have strayed from the nearby Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, a local official told AFP.
It attacked and attempted to dig its teeth into the child’s head, he added, but the child’s mother came to its rescue.
The tiger repeatedly attempted to seize the boy until the villagers heard her screams and raced to her aid.
The tiger subsequently fled into the jungle.
“She is currently a patient at the hospital. She is no longer in danger and recuperating. The infant is also doing well “Shrivastava said.
The woman sustained punctured lungs and abdominal wounds, while the child sustained extensive head lacerations.
The Times of India said that a search operation was underway to return the tiger to its natural habitat and that residents had been instructed to remain indoors at night.
A month ago, the newspaper stated that a tiger killed a man in Sunderbans Tiger Reserve in front of his wife and neighbor.
Undated photograph of a tiger at the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in India. Tom Nebbia via Corbis and Getty Images
South Asia has witnessed an increase in human-animal conflicts as forestland is lost to urbanization.
Approximately 225 people were killed by tiger attacks in India between 2014 and 2019, according to government statistics.
Between 2012 and 2018, more than 200 tigers were murdered by poachers or electrocution, according to the data.
In 2018, a controversial hunter killed a female tiger in India that was responsible for over a dozen fatal assaults.
India is home to around 70% of the world’s tigers, and the estimated tiger population in 2018 was 2,967.
India announced in 2019 that the number of wild tigers has climbed by 33% over the previous four years, despite the increase in human conflict.