BHOPAL: A brave mother fought a tiger to save her infant son in the jungles of Umaria district of 'Tiger State' Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
The incident took place at around 9 am in the backyard of a farmer Bhola Chaudhary's house in Rohaniya Jwalamukhi village, which is located in the buffer zone of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) and National Park.
Bhola's wife Archana (27) was standing in the backyard of her house after her son, 15-months-old Rajveer, had gone to attend to nature's call in the bushes.
At the time, a male tiger that had found shelter in the bushes suddenly pounced on the child. Hearing the tiger's roar Rajveer 's mother Archana turned back and was shocked to find her son being dragged by the tiger by its jaws.
Archana didn't waste any time. She confronted the tiger in her desperate bid to save her child. After a struggle, she managed to save her son from the jaws of death, even though she was left with bleeding wounds.
It is understood that after saving the child from the tiger, she fell flat on the ground hugging her son close to her chest and thereby saving him from the attack of the big cat. While the infant sustained tiger bites on the head and back, his mother received multiple wounds all over her body.
As per informed sources in the village, though the villagers ultimately rushed to save the mother-son duo from being killed by the tiger, had Archana not shown exemplary courage, the family would have been struck by irreparable tragedy.
Coming to know about the incident, teams of BTR rushed to the spot and promptly took the mother and son to the nearest government health facility in Manpur area of Umaria district.
"Three of our trained elephants were subsequently pressed into action with mahouts, but it took around 6-7 hours to finally chase the aggressive tiger out of the village. The injured woman and her infant son have been shifted to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College in Jabalpur," SDO at BTR and National Park, Sudhir Mishra told The New Indian Express.
At the casualty ward of the Medical College, the mother and son are undergoing treatment at government expenditure.
Sources at the medical college said while the infant has sustained injuries on the head, hip and back, his young mother has mauling and bite injuries in many parts of the body, particularly in the shoulder. However, she is responding well to the treatment.