Avenger, lone tiger roaming Marathwada, kills farmer in Beed in first fatal human attack
Avenger, lone tiger roaming Marathwada, kills farmer in Beed in first fatal human attack Farmer killed in tiger attack Avenger, lone tiger roaming Marathwada, kills farmer in Beed in first fatal human attack Avenger, lone tiger roaming Marathwada, kills farmer in Beed in first fatal human attack Farmer killed in tiger attack Avenger, lone tiger roaming Marathwada, kills farmer in Beed in first fatal human attack Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Avenger, the lone tiger roaming across Marathwada and adjoining districts, killed a 38-year-old farmer in Ashti taluka of Beed district on Saturday morning in its first fatal attack on a human. The tiger was first spotted in Marathwada in Dec 2024 and since Oct 17 this year, he has killed two cattle and a horse in Beed district, forest officials said. Forest officials said Devidas alias Pintu Manik Takale of Takale Vasti near Deolali was cutting fodder for his cattle on Sonipathar hillock in the Lokhandwadi-Deolali area around 7.30am when the four-year-old male tiger attacked him from behind. The animal dragged him nearly 500 metres into a thicket of thorny bushes before abandoning his body and fleeing into the forest after villagers approached the spot. Range forest officer Amol Munde said a compensation of Rs 10 lakh would be given to the victim’s family on Sunday. Avenger was captured on a camera trap on Aug 20 in the Brahmgaon forest range of Ashti, marking the first confirmed presence of a tiger in the Ashti and Patoda forest areas since the 1910s and 1920s. It is a cub of tigress T-22 from the Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary in Yavatmal district and left the sanctuary in 2023. After leaving Tipeshwar, the tiger was recorded in Dharashiv in Dec 2024. Its pugmarks were found in Beed in Oct 2025, following which it moved towards Kari near Barshi in Solapur district before returning to the Balaghat mountain ranges in Patoda taluka of Beed, which it has been using as its territory. It was in Beed in August this year, moved to Dharashiv in Sept and returned to Beed on Oct 17.
Forest officials confirmed the tiger attack based on the postmortem findings, injury marks and inspection of the spot. Stay updated with the latest Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar news.
Range forest officer Amol Munde told TOI , “Until now, Avenger had not attacked any human and was surviving largely on natural prey such as deer, wild boar and nilgai, besides occasional cattle kills. The deceased farmer’s elder brother Dada Takale told the forest officials that his teenage nephew had carried a bundle of fodder home and had returned to collect the next one when he found his father missing. It also has an unusual pattern of not targeting cattle for three to four months at a stretch. He saw blood and alerted other villagers. A group of villagers armed with sticks and axes advanced towards the spot, prompting the tiger to flee. However, Takale had succumbed to his injuries by that time. The animal moves across five districts, covering all four talukas of Dharashiv, Ashti and Patoda in Beed, Latur taluka, Jamkhed and Karjat in Ahilyanagar, and Barshi in Solapur. Following Saturday’s attack, forest staff have deployed camera traps and are seeking permission to cage the tiger. Residents have been advised to stay away from forested and hilly areas, avoid venturing out alone and restrict early morning and late evening movement in the Sonipathar-Deolali belt. Download the TOI App.
Since then, it has killed two cattle and a horse.
