A young girl in India has been attacked and killed by a tiger.
The girl, identified by local media as Poonam Gond, was with her grandmother and sisters in a rice paddy in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh when the tiger attacked.
"My granddaughter and I were cutting paddy in the field. It was around 2.30 p.m.," the girl's grandmother, Terasiya Gond, told the Hindustan Times.
"I heard the scream of Poonam. I thought she cut her hand with a sickle, but when I turned around to see her, I saw a tiger dragging her to the field. I cried for help and the villagers, who were cutting paddy in their fields, came and tried to save the girl, but the tiger grabbed her and fled into the dense forest."
Tigers are the largest species of cat in the world, and are found across areas of south and southeast Asia, mostly within China and India. The largest tiger species, the Amur tiger, can grow to lengths of up to 10 feet and weights of 660 pounds. Tigers are classified as endangered species by the IUCN Red List.
"There are 3-4 tigers from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve who roam around in the Jaisinghnagar forest range. A team of forest officials is trying to locate the tiger to keep a check on the tiger's movement," Shahdol divisional forest officer Gaurav Chaudhary told the Hindustan Times.
According to Chaudhary, the tiger had previously been seen roaming in the area but had not attacked a human until now.
Tigers have killed more humans than any other species of big cat: one study estimated that around 373,000 had died from tiger attacks between 1800 and 2009, mostly in India, Nepal and southeast Asia. Attacks occur when a tiger feels threatened, as well as when the tiger is provoked to chase. This is an especially large problem in areas where human settlements have expanded into tiger territories.
There are some cases of tigers that appear to have gained a taste for human meat, being dubbed "man-eaters" due to their repeated attacks. One such example is the Champawat tiger, which killed 200 people in Nepal before being driven out, proceeding to slaughter a further 236 people in north India before she was put down in 1907.
Poonam Gond's body was recovered from the forest by officials, with a post-mortem showing that she died from injuries to her neck and waist. Her family will receive the equivalent of $5,000 from the forest department as financial compensation.
Newsweek has contacted the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department for comment.
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