Mom fights tiger barehanded: An Indian woman, Archana Choudhary suffers injuries while fighting off a tiger. The tiger snatched her baby in response of which she grappled with the tiger with her bare hands. It attacked and tried to sink its teeth into the child’s head but the mother leaped to the rescue, he said.
The tiger kept trying to snatch the boy until villagers heard her screams and rushed to her rescue. Tiger then slunk away into the forest.
The attack took place on Sunday on the outskirts of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. Both mother and son are receiving treatment in the hospital.
The mother suffered punctured lungs and wounds to her abdomen while the toddler had deep gashes on his head.
India is home to critically endangered tigers. Fast-growing human expansion has led to fatal encounters between humans and the big cat. A total of 108 people lost their lives between 2019 and 2021 to tiger attacks, most of them in Maharashtra.
A rise in human-animal conflicts has been seen across South Asia as ever more forest is lost to urban expansion.
Experts say this is because rapid urbanization is destroying natural habitats, forcing animals to enter villages and towns in search of prey and shelter.