Woman fights off adult Bengal tiger with a stick to save her goat and lives to tell the tale
A woman in India has come forward with the story of how she managed to survive a fight with an adult wild tiger after she beat it with a stick. 23-year-old Rupali Meshram from the city of Nagpur, which is in the western state of Maharashtra, jumped to the defense of her panicked goat after the beast attacked it.
The young woman's mother though quickly and somehow pulled the girl into the house while she was busy fighting the tiger with a stick. After the epic battle was over, Meshram took a selfie with her mother who looks less than pleased with her daughter while the younger woman herself had blood all over her face.
The BBC reported that both Meshram and her mother were admitted into a hospital with only minor injuries after the fight with the wild animal. The news agency's website said that Meshram's doctor spoke with high praise of her "exemplary courage" but also said that the young woman was lucky that the tiger did not bite her or her mother.
Sadly, the poor goat did not make it but Meshram and her mother have made a full recovery from their minor injuries. Experts believe that tigers get a taste for the flesh of humans and become man-eaters if they have attacked a person at least once. The animals don't generally attack humans but with man and beast living so close to each other, encounters are bound to happen.
India is home to at least 2,226, based on the last count done in 2014, tigers roaming in the reserve forests that have been created to conserve their population. This is more than half of the population of the rest of the world put together.
Reports from the surrounding areas of conflicts between man and tiger are not that unusual. Dozens of the creatures die every year and most are due to poaching.
There are reports everywhere of people, pets and cattle being mauled to death by tigers and by other cats such as leopards. This happens due to humans encroaching more and more into the territories of these animals and the conflict will not cease if there is not enough damage control.
A man in the eastern state of West Bengal famously fought off a tiger in 2008 and lived to tell the tale.
Fatik Haldar was stuck in mud in almost 4-feet of water. This incident occurred in the Benifeli forest in the Sunderbans. The Sunderbans is often referred to as one of the natural wonders of the world. It is a large forest in the coastal region of the Bay of Bengal.
Haldar was fishing when he suddenly felt the agonizing pain of a tiger's canines in his flesh. He fought back by putting his fingers under the animal's jaws and essentially not letting it clamp down any further.
The Times of India interviewed Haldar, who had become a local legend in a short span of time, at the SSKM Hospital where he said: "I'll never go fishing again." He added: "No, I am not scared. Had it been so, I would not have survived. But I have to look after my children and wife. I don't have anyone else in my family to take care of them after I'm gone. I will have to find out some other means of livelihood now."
The Sunderbans is literally the only place in the world where tigers regularly hunt humans as prey even though there are multiple reports that come out across the country of attacks.