Mom rescues 5-year-old kid from jaws of death in rare ‘big cat bite’

Nagpur: On July 3, five-year-old Prajakta had followed her mother Archana Meshram (27) who chose to avoid their home toilet and headed for the forest nearby to relieve herself in the afternoon.
Even as Archana disappeared behind the thick greenery in Junona village in Chandrapur district, Prajakta’s unusually frightening cry ‘Aai, Aai’ forced the mother to rush back, leaving her urgency aside.
Archana was horrified to see her daughter’s entire face in a huge big cat’s jaws. As the beast began to drag its prey, the mother gave it a chase.
Picking a big bamboo stick, she hit the beast on its tail. The big cat dropped Prajakta only to grab her back. Another strike with the stick and the big cat dropped the kid but this time, charged a bit towards Archana who started swinging the stick.
Narrating the incident which has caught media attention, Archana wasn’t sure if it was sheer luck or her valour that forced the big cat, which she now claims was a tiger, abandon the place.
As per Archana’s statement recorded by forest guard Soni Pandhare “it was a leopard”. Pandhare told TOI this was the first man-animal conflict in the area since 2012 and camera traps showed presence of a leopard only.
After the initial treatment and healing of her facial wounds at the Chandrapur Medical College, Prajakta was shifted to Nagpur’s Government Dental College and Hospital on July 15.
The attack has left the 5-year-old’s upper and lower (maxilla and mandible) jawbones misaligned and fractured periorbital bones. “In my 21-year career, I haven’t seen a survivor of a big cat attack. Hence, this can be called a rare big cat bite. The animal didn’t use full force to grab her face. It was perhaps like the way a tiger holds its cubs,” said Dr Abhay Datarkar, head of the oral and maxillofacial surgery department.
Dr Datarkar and his team would operate on the kid on Monday. The girl would need a facial fixation surgery as she is unable to chew due to the displacement of teeth. She is also unable to close her right eye due to facial palsy.
Arachana said even after two weeks, the horrific incident keeps flashing before her eyes. “Since that day, whenever I close my eyes, I see the tiger holding my kid in its mouth. Somehow, we are trying to overcome the nightmare,” she said.
Asked if she was in two minds, Archana said, “I feared the tiger would charge at me if I chased or beat it. But then how could I leave my daughter to die. As soon as it dropped her and left, I picked up Prajakta and rushed home to inform my husband who took us to hospital.”
Dr Datarkar said the surgery would take about two hours to set the teeth alignment right. “One jaw has been displaced and lowered from its original position. It is called disturbance in occulsion of teeth. Damage to the upper palpebral hinders closing of one eye. Over a period of time it will get restored after the surgery,” he said.