Villagers living close to the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran district of Bihar staged a protest outside a forest department office on Tuesday with the body of a woman killed by a tiger.

The 40-year-old woman was identified as Prem Kumari Devi of Bairiya Kala village near Harnatand area, close to the tiger reserve. She had gone to cut grass for her cattle on Monday evening when the incident occurred.

This is the third such death in the area in the last few months.

The protesters hailing from several villages accompanied the body and laid siege to the forest department office at Harnatand. A section of the local police also arrived there to ensure that there was no untoward incident during the agitation.

The villagers alleged that the officials never bothered about their security despite being provided information about tigers straying near villages and farms. They demanded proper security and patrolling in the area, as well as compensation for the deceased.

“We keep informing the forest department officials whenever we see any dangerous wild animal around our village, but they never take any action to ensure that it is driven back to the jungle. We had informed them recently about sighting a tiger in our area after which some patrolling was done for two days and called off. They are responsible for this death,” said Umesh Mahto, a resident of Bairiya Kala.

Other protesters also pointed out that no senior official visited them in the aftermath of the incident.

They asserted that the incident would not have occurred had the patrolling been continued.

“It was a serious protest which started in the morning and went on till late afternoon. The people were very angry. There was some damage to the gates and other things in our office. However, we pacified and convinced them to allow the body of the deceased for post-mortem,” VTR director-cum-conservator of forest Nesamani K. told The Telegraph.

Nesamani added that the issue of tiger-human conflict was not a new one in the area and has become aggravated due to the absence of a buffer zone between the forest and the human settlements, the burden of an increasing population and the rising number of tigers.

“The villagers are also demanding fencing of the forest and other things. As far as compensation is concerned, the family of the deceased will be eligible for Rs 5 lakh after it is established that the tiger killed her and an FIR is registered,” the VTR director added.