Tiger Snatches Fisherman From Boat in India

Son and daughter unable to fight it off with sticks
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 28, 2014 8:39 AM CDT
Tiger Snatches Fisherman From Boat in India
A tiger prowls in the Sunderbans in India.   (AP Photo/Joydip Kundu)

A man hunting illegally for crabs in a national park in India paid dearly for the transgression this week when a Bengal tiger snatched him from his boat and dragged him into the surrounding forest, reports the Odisha Sun Times. The body of 62-year-old Sushil Manjhi hasn't been found. His son and daughter were in the boat with him when the tiger leapt from bank, and they tried unsuccessfully to beat the animal off with sticks, the son tells AP. The tiger "quickly flung my father on his back and gave a giant leap before disappearing into the forest," he says.

The attack happened in Sunderbans National Park, which is filled with estuaries and tidal rivers and is a crucial habitat for Bengal tigers. Maybe 2,500 exist in the wild, according to Nature World News, and the Sunderbans region is supposed to be off-limits to fishermen and hunters. Poor villagers often hunt for crabs in its waters, however, and this would be the fourth fatal tiger attack in the Sunderbans this year. (In the US, meanwhile, a kayaker was savagely attacked by a beaver.)

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