Lucknow: An 18-year-old class 10 student was killed by a tiger when he had gone out to answer nature’s call near a pond at Pandari village in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district around 4 pm on Monday.
The victim, Pankaj, who goes by his first name only, was preparing for state board exams, scheduled to start on Feb 22.
Naveen Khandelwal, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR), said, “The attack took place approximately 3 km from the junction of Mala and Mahof forest ranges.”
Khandelwal said the deceased’s family would receive a compensation of Rs 5 lakh, including Rs 4 lakh from the State Disaster Response Fund and Rs 1 lakh from the Forest Department.
Angry villagers protested against the ‘perceived negligence’ of forest officials. They claimed that the officials concerned failed to take measures to protect the villagers from the tiger, which had been prowling in the area for the past several days.
SDM of Pilibhit Sadar Circle, Devendra Kumar, and SHO Pradeep Vishnoi rushed to the spot with heavy police force, but villagers refused to hand over the body to them for autopsy until 6.30 pm. Locals placed the body on the Bankati-Pandari road as a mark of protest.
Meanwhile, the victim’s family put the blame on the delayed approval of a govt-sponsored toilet under Swachh Bharat Mission as the prime reason for the tragedy. The family alleged that the approval came late as they refused to bribe the officials.
Kishan Pal, grandfather of the deceased, said, “Had the toilet been sanctioned in time, my grandson would have been alive today.”
This is the third fatal man-tiger conflict in Pilibhit this year. In January, two villagers — Swaroop Singh of Purainideep Nagar and Ganga Ram of Jamunia Aaspur — lost their lives to tiger attacks in the district.
