31 May 2021

Kozhikode: Forest officer T Sasi Kumar of Chethalath range in Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) will hang up his boots on Monday after an action-packed career spanning 36 years that left him with two deep, tiger-bite scars on his head and shoulder. Being at the frontline of man-animal conflicts in Wayanad, Kumar’s life was saved by a whisker in the two tiger attacks he faced during the past 10 months.

While a tiger sank its teeth through the helmet to bite on his head in the first attack at Panakolli near Pulpally in October 2020, in the second attack Kumar’s shoulder bones crumbled after the tiger bit deep into his left shoulder in January. Kumar now has a steel plate on his shoulder after the second attack that left him hospitalized for 25 days.

The first attack took place when he, along with a team, went to drive away a tiger after it strayed into a compound of a house.

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