Woman killed by tiger while picking cotton balls in Asifabad

Sources said that Morle Laxmi (21) from Gannaram village died on the spot after a tiger attacked her while she was picking cotton balls in a farm on the outskirts of Nazrulnagar at around 8 am

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: A woman was killed by a tiger while she was picking cotton balls at a farm on the outskirts of Village Number 6 in Easgaon village, also known as Nazrulnagar, in Kagaznagar mandal early on Friday morning. This was the fourth such incident reported in the district since 2020, though there were no incidents in the last two years

Morle Lakshmi (21) from Gannaram village fell unconscious after receiving serious injuries to her neck when the tiger mauled her while she along with around eight other labourers were engaged in harvesting the cotton crop between 8 am and 9 am. She was immediately shifted to a hospital in Kagaznagar town, where doctors declared her brought dead. She was married to Vasudev, a daily wage earner from the same village in 2023.

---

Eyewitnesses said the tiger pounced on the woman from behind and bit her on the neck. When the others raised an alarm, the tiger ran through the cotton field and fled into the forest. Forest officials rushed to the spot and gathered evidence of pug marks of the tiger. Samples of injuries and saliva of the tiger would be sent to a forensic laboratory for examination, they said.

Forest officials suspected that a tiger from Maharashtra might have been disturbed when locals tried to take its photographs and videos in the morning and could have attacked the woman. A watcher tracked the movement of the tiger from Peddabanda village in Sirpur (T) mandal. Four teams were formed to patrol the villages that were seeing movement of tigers at night, the officials said.

Meanwhile, family members, relatives and members of Lakshmi’s community staged a dharna in front of the Forest Divisional Officer’s office in Kagaznagar, carrying her body and seeking compensation. They said Forest officials were showing negligence in addressing man-animal conflicts resulting in deaths of humans at regular intervals.

The agitators withdrew their protest when forest officials agreed to initiate the process of extending compensation to the kin of the woman. Adilabad Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director to Kawal Tiger Reserve S Shantharam said cheques of Rs 5 lakh each would be given to Vasudev and Lakshmi’s parents in Kagaznagar town soon. He also agreed to offer a watcher job to one of her family members and said he would recommend to the government to sanction additional ex-gratia of Rs.10 lakh and five acres of land.

On November 15 in 2022, Sidam Bheem (69) was mauled to death by a tiger when he was plucking balls of cotton in a field near Gondapur hamlet under Choupanguda village in Wankidi mandal. Pasula Nirmala (17) of Kondapalli in Penchikalpet mandal and Sidam Vignesh (23) belonging to Digida village in Dahegaon mandal were killed by tigers on November 29 and 21 in 2020, respectively.