A 50-year-old tribal woman was killed by a tiger in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Monday morning.
The deceased, M. Gowri, an Adivasi resident of Kurumbarpadi in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve, had ventured into a forest patch along with her husband Maathan, and two others.
A tiger, which was hidden in a thicket, is believed to have stalked and attacked Gowri, dragging her away from the rest of the group. The animal dragged Gowri around 100 meters away from the site of the initial attack, before fleeing after Maathan and the others began shouting and making a noise.
Deputy Director of MTR (buffer zone), L.C.S. Srikanth, said that interim compensation would be provided to the family and that the Forest Department was investigating the cause of the attack. Officials said that the incident did not occur close to human habitation, but inside a Reserve forest in Kallallah in the Singara forest range.
The body has been retrieved and sent for a post-mortem examination. This is the first human fatality resulting from a tiger attack in the Nilgiris since 2016, officials said.
