Pilibhit: Fear returned to Pilibhit’s Nauria region on Thursday morning as tigers believed to have earlier killed two farmers launched a fresh series of attacks, leaving one woman dead and two villagers—including a teenage boy and another woman—seriously injured in separate incidents within two hours.
In Mandaria village, 50-year-old Trishna Devi was killed after being attacked by a tiger around 7 AM while she was working in her field. Her mauled body was recovered from the field shortly after the attack. Just 15 minutes earlier, the same or another tiger had attacked Nilesh, a 15-year-old boy from the same village. Nilesh fought the tiger for nearly ten minutes before being rescued by shouting villagers, who managed to scare the animal away.
“I saw the tiger pounce on Nilesh. The boy was screaming, and we ran with sticks and shouted. That is when the tiger left him,” said Mahesh Pal, a farmer who witnessed the attack. “The forest department is doing nothing. We are living in fear every day.”
In another attack around 6 AM, Meena Devi (50) from Sahjaniya village was seriously injured after being dragged nearly 20 metres by a tiger that sprang out from a sugarcane field. The villagers again intervened, and the animal fled. Meena was rushed to the hospital with a deep wound on her back and is currently undergoing treatment.
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“We keep telling the forest officials that tigers are roaming in our fields, but they come late or ignore us,” said Sharda Devi, a resident of Sahjaniya. “Do they want more people to die before they act?”
Villagers in Mandaria and Sahjaniya say they have seen at least two tigers roaming in the fields over the past week. Many have stopped sending their children to school and are now avoiding the fields, even during daylight hours.
Forest officials confirmed that camera traps have been set up and that search teams are tracking the tigers. “Our teams are active in the area and working to drive the tigers back to the forest. We urge villagers to stay alert and avoid isolated fields,” said R.K. Sharma, Range Officer.
Despite official assurances, tension remains high across the affected villages, with locals demanding the immediate capture of the tigers and regular forest patrols to prevent further tragedies.
