Big cat kills woman, consumes upper body in Kheri

PILIBHIT: A 35-year-old woman was dragged into a sugarcane field by a big cat while she was collecting fodder in Maharaj Nagar village of Lakhimpur Kheri district on Saturday morning. Her half-eaten body was found on Sunday morning by a team of forest personnel from Nighasan forest range under North Kheri forest division.According to range officer Bhupendra Singh, the feline is yet to be identified as the pugmarks could not be traced due to dry soil and layers of dry sugarcane leaves in the field. A few indistinct pugmarks on the soft surface of the fodder field were completely deformed as villagers rushed to the field after the woman’s remains were found, the range officer said.Meanwhile, agitated villagers on Sunday protested against the forest department for “laxity in surveillance of stray tigers and leopards.” The village pradhan, Tika Ram, said measures have not been taken to prevent wild animals from entering their fields and villages. Usha Devi had gone to her agricultural field with another woman when a big cat attacked her and dragged her 30 m into an adjoining sugarcane field, where it consumed most of her upper body, said range officer Bhupendra Singh. Despite an intensive search for the victim, she could not be traced throughout the night.Considering the nature of the attack on the woman and the pattern of eating the body suggest that a tiger was involved in the attack, which took place around 250 m from the periphery of the forest, said the forest official. The body was sent for autopsy, he added.Field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, H Rajamohan, said monitoring teams of field forest personnel have been deployed and four camera traps have been installed near the spot to identify the feline and monitor its movement. A cage with a live bait was also set up to trap the big cat. If necessary, nets would be placed to restrain the feline from moving towards the village, he said.This was the first fatal man-big cat conflict in North Kheri forest division this year. Earlier, as many as nine fatalities were reported in attacks by tigers and leopards in villages located close to this forest division in 2025.