Lucknow: Coloured clothes can invite tiger attacks

Lucknow: Forest officials have realised that people wearing colourful clothes are more likely to instigate a tiger attack. Salil Kumar Shukla, divisional forest officer, Bijnore district, said that in the last two years, there have been four tiger attack along the UP-Uttarakhand border and in all cases, the victims were found to be wearing brightly coloured clothes.

“We have now directed our staff not to wear such clothes and we will see the results”, he said. The forest official cited an incident that took place in 2013 in which a tigress had strayed from Corbett Park and entered into the agricultural fields. While passing through the agricultural fields, the tigress left a trail of terror and 12 human deaths. Most of the victims were wearing bright coloured clothes.

“In the attack on Saturday which took place in the Sarpduli range of Corbett National Park, the victim was not wearing the prescribed white and grey uniform”, he said. This range merges into Amangarh Forest Reserve that comes under Bijnore district. Amangarh is also a buffer zone of Corbett.

The official said that since all the ranges do not have any physical demarcation, the animals are free to move anywhere in the area.  “We have issued advisory to all the border villages to stay alert and have increased patrolling in the area”, he added.    

Woman mauled to death by lion in Gujrat

A 50-year-old woman was mauled to death by a lion at a village in Gujarat's Amreli district near Gir Wildlife Sanctuary, a forest official said on Monday.
The victim, Labuben Solanki, was preyed upon by the lion around midnight while she was sleeping outside the house of a relative whom she had gone to visit in Bharad village in Dhari taluka, Assistant Conservator of Forest (Dhari) M N Muni said.The victim was a relative of one of the labourers who have come here to work at a mango orchard, he said.