A tiger dragged a fisherman into the forest in the Sundarbans recently. The forest department’s search operation has failed to trace him.

Villagers said this was the fourth tiger attack in the Sundarbans this year.

Pradip Mondal, 35, a resident of Satjelia Sukumari village in Gosaba block of South 24-Parganas under Sundarban Coastal police station, went to catch crabs in the Chamta forest on February 1.

“He and two others went into the forest in a boat. On February 3, a tiger dragged him away,” Pradip’s brother Bishnu said on Thursday.

The two men alerted the forest department. The department sent a team, but it could not find any signs of a tiger attack.

“That part of the Chamta forest is part of the core area of National Park East Range, one of the four ranges of the Sundarban Tiger Reserve (STR). No human activity is allowed in the core areas,” said a forest official.

“An investigation was carried out, but there was no sign of a tiger attack,” he added.

The department is planning to take action against the men for entering the core area.

Pradip used to live in Sonarpur on the southern fringes of Calcutta and was a daily wage earner, Bishnu said.

“About two years ago, he returned to look after our ailing parents,” said Bishnu. “He started fishing due to a lack of jobs in the Sundarbans.”

Members of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a civil and human rights group, said that this year, four fishermen were attacked by tigers. Two of them died, one was injured and the fourth is missing.

“We demand compensation,” said Sarbo Ranajan Mondal, the APDR secretary in Gosaba.

Justin Jones, deputy field director, STR, said the department records deaths caused by tigers in the forest when the victim holds a license to access buffer areas. “The last such death took place in 2023,” he said.