Master of stealth

Calcutta, July 1: A tiger sneaked up from behind and pounced on a fisherman pushing a trawler stuck in the shallows of a creek in the Sunderbans yesterday afternoon.

The animal took Narayan Das by the neck, but could not drag him beyond a few metres as over a dozen others raised the alarm and hurled sticks, utensils and whatever they could lay their hands on at it.

Leaving the man behind in the slush, the tiger bounded into the woods.

The forest on Kalash Island, 250km from Calcutta, is part of the core area of the tiger reserve, but the fishermen were not exactly trespassers.

They had taken refuge in the creek when the high seas suddenly turned very choppy on Sunday. “The creek at Kalash was comparatively calm,” said a forest official.

Around 11am yesterday, they decided to return home as the weather improved. But the trawler would not move in the low tide.

“Some of us jumped into waist-deep water and started pushing it towards deep water. Narayan was at the rear. Suddenly, we heard him cry for help and saw a large tiger dragging him towards the jungle,” said Jogen Naskar.

Those who were on the trawler started hurling utensils, sticks and other missiles at the tiger. “The tiger was initially very stubborn and kept dragging Narayan. But then it suddenly dropped him and ran. We ran up to Narayan. He was lying face down in a pool of blood,” said Tarak Naskar, another fisherman.

An unconscious Narayan was brought back to the trawler. The boat reached Kultali, 100km away, this afternoon.

A local doctor declared him dead.

Narayan, 20, a resident of Kalyani in Nadia, had come to his brother-in-law Jogen on a holiday and decided to join the fishing expedition. They had set out on June 25.

All the fishermen on the trawler were in their 20s and residents of Kultali.

“It is illegal to enter the forest without permission,” said principal conservator of forests A.K. Raha. Narayan’s family, he added, is not entitled to any compensation.

Had they gone out with the forest department’s permission, Narayan’s family would have got Rs 1 lakh.

In another part of the Sunderbans, about 80km from Kalash, a tiger mauled fisherman Phatik Halder this afternoon. This animal, too, tried to drag him into the forest but gave up as the alarm was raised.

Phatik, who was attacked in a canal in Gosaba, is also a resident of Kultali. He is now in hospital.

Exactly a month ago, Tapan Mukherjee was dragged away from a boat on the edge of the river Matla, along the same Benipheli forest where Phatik was attacked.

Tapan, 24, and his father Pashupati, 45, were catching crabs when the tiger struck. The body could not be traced after several days of search. Pashupati was seriously injured trying to save his son.