A tribal farmer was attacked and killed by a wild animal, suspected to be a tiger or a leopard, in a forest area in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district of Telangana, said Forest Department on Thursday.
The incident happened on November 15 when the tribal was working in a cotton field, the department said adding it cannot initially be confirmed whether the 69-year-old man was killed by a leopard or a tiger going by the pug marks.
Samples from the bite marks on the farmer have been sent for a test from which it can be confirmed whether it was a tiger or leopard, a senior forest official told PTI over phone.
The man died of injuries to the head, side and back of the neck. Officials are waiting for scientific data to declare whether it is tiger or leopard or any other wild animal.
“We have placed a camera trap and be able to track the movement of the wild animal that attacked…We’ve alerted the villagers close to the spot,” the official said.
Because the pug marks are not clear as the place where the farmer died is a rocky terrain, and there are different sizes of the marks, he said.
Also, it is believed that the particular animal had come from neighbouring Maharashtra and attacked after entering Telangana, the official further said.
In November 2020, two people — a 21-year-old tribal man and a 15-year-old girl — were attacked and killed by a tiger in separate incidents at the same spot.
