Arjun Tanti at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Jorhat, Feb. 29: A 15-year-old cowherd was saved from a tiger attack by his buffalo, which forced the big cat to drop its prey and dart back to the forest.

Arjun Tanti and four of his friends were grazing buffaloes on the periphery of Kaziranga National Park yesterday afternoon when the Royal Bengal tiger pounced on the teenager.

By the time Arjun could grasp what had happened, the tiger had begun tightening its grip on his shoulders and arms.

He had given himself up for dead when help came from an unimagined quarter.

Dipali, his female buffalo, charged at the tiger and chased it all the way to the fringe of a forest before returning to him.

“Dipali chased the tiger for a long distance after it had left me. I have returned from the jaws of death... had it not been for Dipali, it would have been certain death for me,” Arjun told The Telegraph at Jorhat Medical College Hospital here.

The resident of Dergoya Pam village, who is recuperating from hand and shoulder injuries, said the tiger was taking shelter in the thick grass and when they reached there to graze the cattle.

“My friends and the buffaloes fled as soon as the tiger attacked me, but Dipali not only stood her ground, but charged at it and saved me,” Arjun said.

The attack is yet another in the list of increasing man-tiger conflicts near the national park in recent times.

Villages on the fringe of the national park have suffered numerous tiger attacks in which several persons were killed.

At least two Royal Bengal tigers were also killed in conflicts near the park in the last couple of months.

Kaziranga, where tiger census is currently under way, was declared a tier reserve in 2006.

According to National Tiger Conservation Authority report, the Kaziranga tiger reserve has a density of 15.92 tigers per 100 square km.

Kohora range officer of Kaziranga National Park, Atiqur Rahman, said it could be a female tiger with calves which had attacked the cowherd.

The particular tigress had unleashed terror in the fringe areas of the park.

“The tigress had strayed out of the park in search of easy prey and has been attacking cattle population,” he said.

Soon after receiving information about the incident yesterday, Rahman rushed to the place with a group of forest personnel. But they were attacked by a mob of 200 villagers, who alleged that the forest department has failed to protect them from the tiger menace.

At least three forest personnel were injured, one of them seriously, when the villagers pounced on them with sharp weapons.

Bhagarothi Mohanty, a forest guard who lost two of his fingers, has been referred to the Assam Medical College Hospital, Dibrugarh.

Mohanty had tried to save Rahman when a villager attacked him with a knife.

Rahman said the forest department has lodged a complaint at the Bokakhat police station.

“We have also identified five villagers who launched the attack on us,” he said.