By IANS,
Lucknow : A tiger killed a man in a village adjoining a forest area in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district. His partially eaten body was found in the fields, an official said Monday.
The body of the victim, Shyamlal, was recovered late Sunday from the fields in Diunia village, situated on the periphery of the Pilibhit forest reserve.
“The pugmarks found at the site indicate the tiger is an adult male,” Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) V.K. Singh told reporters in Pilibhit, some 250 km from here.
“Till a few months ago, no tiger was present in the Deuriya area of the forest reserve. But field investigations now suggest the area is inhabited by at least four tigers. The presence of tigers in the Deuriya area could be a case of territory expansion by the animals,” he said.
Shyamlal, a 50-year-old resident of Diunia, had left his home Saturday and was missing since then. As he failed to return, his family and other villagers started searching for him and recovered his body from the fields.
According to officials, this is the fourth incident of a tiger killing a person in the last three months in Pilibhit district.
According to the last census, Pilibhit forest reserve is home to around 36 tigers, officials said.