The raging tiger-human conflict claimed one more life in rural area of Chandrapur district on Thursday.
Sixty-year-old Tuljabai Jambhole of village Shedegaon in Chimur range had gone with other villagers to collect Mahua flowers, when the tiger attacked her around 8 am in the forests along the peripheral area of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), forest officials said. The woman died on the spot.
The spot where the incident occurred is about two km from the place where the previous victim, Bhaurao Masram of Jhari village, had been killed by the tiger on April 4, officials said. They suspect it is the same tiger. The two deaths have spread panic in the villages in the area.
On April 1, a tiger had killed a 30-year-old man on the other side of the forests in Bramhapuri division when he had gone to collect the Mahua flowers, which is an important livelihood source for the impoverished villagers living around the tiger reserve.
The forest department is running a corridor conservation programme in the conflict areas to mitigate the crisis that first precipitated in 2006 and has been aggravating ever since. The area is the biggest tiger-man conflict zone in the country, experts say.
