Balangir: Fear gripped villagers under Ulunda forest range of neighbouring Sonepur district after some of them claimed to have seen a tiger in the forest on Friday evening.

The forest officials also confirmed the presence of a tiger after examining the footsteps of the animal on a paddy field near Daldaba village on Saturday morning. They said that it could also be a leopard. Senior forest officials, however, soon dismissed their own findings and said that it was not a leopard, but a hyena.

Villagers of the area however maintain that they had seen a tiger.

Last week, a herd of elephant had destroyed crops in the area causing panic among the villagers.

Babula Sahu, a resident of Harinapali village, said he along with his friends noticed some movements in the forest when they were returning to their village from Ulunda in the evening.

"We stopped there for sometime to ascertain what it was. And then we saw the tiger. We ran towards the village to save our lives. Shortly, some other villagers also claimed that they saw the tiger. Thereafter, the villagers are panic-stricken and staying indoors since last evening. Moreover, Dhanu Yatra is being observed in Ulunda and many villagers go there to witness the festival everyday and they return late. They are in a state of panic," Sahu said.

Sahu further said the footsteps were seen on the paddy field near Daldaba village on Saturday morning.

On a contrary, forest range officer of Ulunda, Shiba Prasad Naik, said the forest officials had wrongly attributed the animal to be a tiger. He told The Telegraph: "The animal is not a leopard or tiger, but a hyena and there is no need to panic. "

Elephant attack

A wild elephant gored to death a 43-year-old farmer on Saturday at a forest-side village in Keonjhar district.

The incident occurred on Saturday in Kaligada village under Sadar forest range of the district. The victim Jagat Naik was at his crop field and was doing crop-cutting when the wild tusker came from nowhere and trampled him to death, forest officials said.