Tigers seek refuge from cyclone

Residents of a village hit by last week’s cyclone in Bangladesh say two Royal Bengal tigers sought shelter from the ferocious storm in their village.

A woman in Joymonir Ghol said when she went out of the house on the night of the storm to check her belongings, she found a tiger on her veranda.

Another man said he saw a tiger attacking and killing a stray dog.

A local official in the village said it was not uncommon for tigers to seek refuge in the village in bad weather.

It was a case of mankind and some of the most feared wild animals in the world hiding together from the fearsome forces of nature.

‘Reluctant’

“It was a very strong storm and it seemed to break everything,” Momena, a housewife, said.

“During the storm I went outside to check my belongings. It was then when I saw a tiger sheltering underneath our veranda.

“It seemed reluctant to leave when I shone my torch on it because the weather was so terrible. But eventually it left,” she said.

Momena is not the only person who saw a tiger on that fateful night.

“I was taking shelter from the terrifying storm with some of my relatives,” said Babul Hawladar.

“As I was running to their house I noticed that a stray village dog was following me.

“As we were arriving a tiger jumped on the dog, killed it and fled, taking the dog away in its mouth.

“We were in panic from both the tiger and the cyclone at the same time,” Mr Hawladar said.

“But the winds were so terrible that we were afraid of the cyclone more than the tigers because at that time, the cyclone was more dangerous than the tigers,” he added.

The villagers had good cause to be frightened, because at least four people were killed during the storm.

A local government official in the village, Abu Taleb, said that it was not uncommon for tigers to seek refuge in the village when the weather gets bad.

“During bad weather, they have hunted cattle, recently even killed a man in our village,” he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7101228.stm