Unidentified Wild Animal Kills Teenage Boy at the Sanjay Tiger Reserve in India

An unidentified wild animal mauled to death a 14-year-old boy in the Sanjay Tiger Reserve (STR) in Madhya Pradesh, India, on Sunday, April 3.

Details regarding the identity of the attacker and the whole incident remained unclear at this time as the investigation is still ongoing.

Boy Found Dead

The unknown wild animal attacked the teenager in the Baghdhara village of the Vastua range of STR on Sunday, April 3.

Residents in the area claimed that a tiger killed the boy.

However, forest officials said the animal involved in the attack is yet to be identified, as per the Deccan Herald.

The boy's body covered with blood was found near the Kodmar river where he reportedly went to graze cattle.

However, it is uncertain what events led to the incident.

Local authorities attributed it to an animal attack since the teenager's body had large wounds on the neck and back.

Human-Wildlife Conflict

The case of the recent attack by the unidentified wild animal in Madhya Pradesh is not yet resolved.

Nevertheless, there is a strong indication that it was an alleged tiger based on the elated cases over recent years, as well as the reported first-hand account from the villagers in Baghdhara.

In a case of extreme human-wildlife conflict, related cases of animal attacks, notably from tigers, are common in India since the 19tg century.

During the British colonial rule, tigers have killed 33,247 people in India between 1876 and 1912, as per the Kerala Travel Tours.

Tiger Attacks in India

Between 2019 and 2021, the Indian government said a total of 108 people have been reportedly killed due to tiger attacks across the country, as per The Times of India.

The following data below is some of the breakdowns of fatalities from tiger attacks for affected states in a given year:

• 2021 - five in Maharashtra, five in Uttar Pradesh, three in Bihar, and one in Uttarakhand
• 2020 - 25 in Maharashtra and four in Uttar Pradesh
• 2019 - 26 in Maharashtra and eight in Uttar Pradesh

The highest cases can be found in the state of Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, there have been no reports of tiger attacks in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh during the said period.

As a result, India's National Tiger Conservation Authority created three standard operating procedures (SOPs) to deal with the human-animal conflict.

The SOPs included the dispersal of tigers in a large area and the management of livestock to reduce tiger attacks on humans, as per The Times of India.

Related Study

In Indonesia, tigers killed 146 people, at least 870 livestock, and injured 30 other humans between 1978 and 1997, as per a study published by the Cambridge University Press in the journal Oryx in 2004.

The researchers of the study found that poor and inadequate policies have led to an increased frequency of conflict between tigers, humans, and livestock.

In protected areas, conflict was lesser compared to areas where tigers and humans live together.

The findings of the said study can still be correlated with the tigers of India since the so-called man-eating predators are known to be territorial animals.

The expansion of human settlement or even entering an area perceived by a tiger to be its territory is plausibly the main cause of the conflict.