An elderly man and his grandson suffered the same fate on February 12 and 13 when they were killed within hours of each other after separate tiger attacks.
The first victim was 18-year-old Chetan, who died after succumbing to injuries sustained during a tiger attack on February 12 while at a coffee plantation near a forested area in Karnataka, India.
Tragedy struck the family again about 12 hours later when a tiger, suspected to be the same one that attacked young Chetan earlier, attacked Raju, identified as a 75-year-old Jenu tribesman in Karnataka. He was attacked in an area near his home at the Nagarahole National Park.
In a cruel twist of fate, Raju had attended his grandson’s funeral. The tiger reportedly grabbed him by the head when he stepped out of the house and killed him.
The family did not have time to properly grieve the two tragedies before another struck. Another family member, 56-year-old Jayamma, could not handle the news of two of her relatives passing. She died of shock after receiving the news.
Authorities believe that the man and his grandson were killed by the same tiger, with the attacks happening about two miles from each other.
During the first attack, the boy’s father tried to help Chetan but was seriously injured.
A local news outlet reported that forest officers gave the boy’s parents a check for about $3,013 after the first incident.
After the second incident, local authorities and forest officials launched an operation to find and capture the animal and prevent other attacks.
Locals believed the tiger was too old to hunt other animals and ended up harming humans instead. They said there was no other option but for the tiger to be put down after it turned to hunt humans.
Authorities also assumed the Bengal tiger was injured because Chetan and his dad had reportedly tried to fight off the wild cat by beating it.
A forest official told the outlet they had compiled a team of almost 250 personnel to track the animal down. The team used about 30 trap cameras, five elephants, and three cages to capture the tiger.
The team discovered the tiger on February 14, hiding near one of the national park’s gates. It tranquilized the 13-year-old tiger and took it back into the park.
