Unarmed, ‘tiger’ mom snatches kid from leopard jaws

Unarmed, ‘tiger’ mom snatches kid from leopard jaws

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal: 01.12.2021

A tribal woman took on a leopard with her bare hands and snatched her six year-old son from its jaws in a bloody fight in a village near Sanjay Gandhi National Park in MP’s Sidhi on Sunday.

The Baiga woman chased the leopard and caught up with it just when it sat down with its ‘prey’, say sources. She came out of the fight injured, but with the child in her arms. The boy also has deep claw and fang wounds, but scars — and the memory of his unarmed mother wrestling a leopard — are all that will remain.

Kiran, the feisty mother, lives in Badi Jhiriya village in the buffer zone of the national park. On Sunday evening, she was sitting with her children next to a fire outside her hut, waiting for her husband to return, unaware that a leopard was watching them. Her youngest child, a few months old, was in her lap.

In a flash, the leopard darted out of the shadows, caught six-year-old Rahul in its jaws, and ran off. Kiran was up in a flash, too. She handed the newborn to one of her other kids and sprinted after the animal. Even in the darkness, she kept up with the spotted cat and found it sitting in some bushes. Kiran says she lunged at the leopard, grabbed Rahul and pulled with all her strength. The predator seemed taken by surprise, and she could tear Rahul from its grasp.

Unwilling to give up its prey, the leopard lashed out with its claws and cut mother and child. Kiran fought back, screaming for help. By then, villagers were already running to her aid. The pounding feet and the shouts unnerved the leopard, which scampered back into the forest. The villagers took mother and child her to hospital.

Kiran with her son in Badi Jhiriya village in Madhya Pradesh