A tiger from Chitwan National Park killed a man in Chitwan on Monday morning.

The deceased in the tiger attack has been identified as Bawona Chaudhary, an elderly man in his late 50s, according to Ashok Ram, information officer at Chitwan National Park.

Chaudhary, a local resident of Ward No. 6 in Ratnanagar Municipality, Chitwan, was attacked by the wild cat when he had gone to cut grass in Kumroj Buffer Zone Community Forest near the Sauraha area.

“When the male mahout reached the area to collect grass for elephants, the tiger was already there. The attacking tiger had killed an antelope and was eating the prey,” Ram told the Post from Chitwan over the phone. “That’s when he was attacked by the tiger.”

According to Ram, park officials and security forces have recovered the mahout’s body.

This is the second incident of a tiger killing a human in Chitwan over the past two days.

On Saturday, a 65-year-old man, who had also gone to the jungle to cut grass, was killed by a tiger in the Belsahar Buffer Zone Community Forest area, adjoining Chitwan National Park. The area is supposed to be the core habitat of tigers.

These two incidents, however, appear to be different from each other.

“While the Saturday incident looked like an intentional attack by the tiger, today’s killing is more like an accidental attack,” said Ram. “When tigers turn old and cannot hunt wild prey, they turn to humans as an easy target. In today’s case, it looks like the tiger had attacked because it was disturbed in its territory while devouring its prey.”

When the team from the park reached the scene, the tiger had already fled, unlike in the previous incident when the tiger had captured the body for several hours.

This is also the third killing of a local by a tiger from Chitwan National Park this fiscal year.

As per the latest tiger census of 2018, Chitwan National Park and adjoining forests are home to the highest number of tigers–93. With the increasing tiger population, there has been a rise in the sighting of tigers, and they have been straying into nearby settlements and attacking locals.

In 2018-19, three locals had died in tiger attack incidents around the park. All the three killings had taken place during this season only.

“This is the time when tigers are usually very active,” said Ram. “If tigers are old or sick or have got injuries after a fight among themselves, they resort to attacking humans, as they are easier to hunt.”