A tiger. Telegraph picture

Bagaha, Jan. 30: The fear of a tigress residing these days along with her two cubs inside a sugarcane field in Bhelahi village under Chiutaha range of the Valmikinagar Forest Reserve has put both the forest personnel and farmers of the area on their toes.

Against claim of the local people, the forest personnel feared that to be a leopard. The forest men are camping in the village to assist the farmers who have started harvesting sugarcane grown over the said plot of land from Sunday morning.

The tigress in the sugarcane field within the past one week has killed a buffalo, said the villagers.

After a bear and a deer that came out of the forest in the last fortnight, it was the third occasion when another animal ventured out of the jungle into human territory.

Earlier on January 16, a bear which had come out in Balua Chhatraul village under Gonauli forest range had injured Baliram Bhagat, Moti Chand Bhagat and Leela Kumari, besides one deer that had lost its way on the 20th of this month and was ultimately crushed by a running train near Valmikinagar Road railway station.

When contacted, the divisional forest officer (DFO) S. Kumar Swami, told The Telegraph that since the sugarcane field was located near the forest, the leopard must have gone back inside the forest by now, but as a precautionary measure the forest personnel are already camping near the field where the farmers are harvesting their crop.