Elizabeth O.
Indian Mother Fights tiger To save son
Archana Choudhary stepped out of her house in the central state of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday night as the 15-month-old boy wanted to relieve himself.
According to reports, India is home to around 70 percent of the world’s tigers and the tiger population was estimated at 2,967 in 2018.
A tiger believed to have strayed from the nearby Bandhavgarh Reserve pounced on them, local official Sanjeev Shrivastava told AFP.
It attacked and tried to sink its teeth into the child’s head but the mother leapt to the rescue, he said.
The tiger kept trying to snatch the boy until villagers heard her screams and rushed to her rescue.
The mother suffered punctured lungs and wounds to her abdomen while the toddler had deep gashes on his head.
The Times of India newspaper said a search operation was underway to push the tiger back to its territory and that villagers had been told to stay indoors at night.
A rise in human-animal conflicts has been seen across South Asia as ever more forest is lost to urban expansion.
