TIGER
On the opening day of Wildlife Week on Sunday, when officials of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, social forestry and WWF were busy discussing the growing threat of tiger attacks in the region, a Khargapur village resident was mauled to death by a big cat.

Officials said that the area where the attack took place comes under Neuria police jurisdiction and is around 300 meters from Mahof forest range of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. The man was mowing grass in an agricultural field along with others when he was attacked.

Khargapur village pradhan Harjit Singh said that while sub-divisional magistrate Poornima Singh rushed to the spot along with police force to review the situation, no one from forest department bothered to pay a visit. "The tiger was apparently in a nearby field when Bablu and a few others were cutting grass. The attack was so quick and sudden that the villagers present there didn't get a chance to rescue Bablu. The animal then disappeared through cropped fields of sugarcane," he said.

On being asked about the incident and why they did not visit the spot, divisional forest officer, PTR, Kailash Prakash simply said that they feared that they would be assaulted by angry villagers.

Meanwhile, the SDM said that the victim's body was sent for autopsy. She added that she had appealed to both the divisional forest officers to reach the spot, but for some reason they hadn't arrived.

District magistrate Sheetal Verma said that she will ask officials to verify if the victim had a revenue record of his land so that his case can be forwarded for compensation.