Tiger ‘kills’ woman, Satkosia Tiger Reserve tense 

ANGUL:  Tension ran high near Satkosia Tiger Reserve after locals torched a beat house and a range office angered by the alleged killing of a woman by a tiger on Wednesday afternoon.

The irate locals ransacked and torched Tikarpara range office, beat house at Hatibari and the crocodile office. They also set all the boats at Tikarpara on fire and even ransacked the local guest house. Later, hundreds of agitators blocked Angul-Tikarpara road demanding removal of the tigress from Satkosia and compensation to the woman’s kin.

Sources said 35-year-old Kalisahi Soya of Hatibari village was killed at around 1 pm when she had gone to a nearby rivulet for taking bath when the tiger attacked her.When Soya did not return, her husband along with some villagers searched the nearby forest and found her mauled body. As the news spread, people of nearby Majhipara, Tikarpara, Goindia and Behera Sahi villages gathered and went on a pillaging spree. 

“Our worst fears came true. We have been repeatedly informing the Forest department about the threat posed by the tiger to the local,” said Biraj Jani, an activist of Satkosia Praja Surakhya Samiti. Satkosia DFO SMT Rahman said a forest team was tracking movement of the large cat for the last few days and the villagers had been warned against venturing into the forest.

The woman had gone to the forest and she might have been killed by the feline which is believed to be a tigress that was brought from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Rahman said.Recently, the Forest department had released a tiger and a tigress, from Madhya Pradesh, into Satkosia as part its plan to boost big cat population in the State.  

Till reports last came in, the road blockade continued as no police or Forest officials reached the spot to pacify the irate villagers. Sources said Forest officials and staff have abandoned their offices following the incident.