Hell hath no fury like a mom in straight-up survival mode.
A mother and her 15-month-old son narrowly escaped the literal jaws and claws of death this week when a tiger ambushed and attacked them, leaving both in critical condition.
The incident occurred in India on the outskirts of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in the Umaria district.
The mother, 25-year-old Archana Choudhary, was walking her son outside of their family hut so her child, Raviraj, could go to the bathroom.
A tiger lunged at them, capturing the boy in its jaws and attempting to drag him away.
The mom activated immediate battle mode and jumped between the tiger and her son, and fought the tiger off with her bare hands.
According to the Times of India, a struggle ensued, but the mother was able to pull her child to safety.
As she grabbed her child and yanked him free, the tiger swung at her leaving nasty gashes that included a punctured lung.
Nearby villagers heard the commotion and her screams for help and came to her rescue where she and her child were then taken to a local hospital to be treated.
The young family is on the mend in an ICU at a hospital in Jabalpur and is expected to recover.
Aside from punctured lungs, the mother also suffered life-threatening wounds to her abdomen.
Her son suffered deep gashes in his head, although doctors told the BBC that the boy’s wounds were not considered serious.
As humans slash more forests for farming and develop wild lands that are home to predator animals, more and more stories like this will leak into the news.
The Times of India reports that between 2019 and 2021 alone, 108 people died from tiger attacks.
India is the home base for wild tigers, where 70% of the world’s beloved big cats reside.
But loving a tiger must happen at a distance because these thunder cats are walking death traps that will delete you without a second thought.
And although human-animal conflicts are increasing due to the loss of wild habitats, India has shown an incredible commitment to protecting tigers despite being the fastest-growing economy in the world.
Because yes, you can thrive without murdering the environment.
According to CBS News, in 1973, India launched Project Tiger, which started out as a small animal rehabilitation that included nine reserves.
Half a century later, 502 reserves dot India’s massive nation, making up 2/21% of the geography.
And while that is excellent news for tigers, it’s not such great news if you’re a poor farmer living near one of these reserves where tigers tend to wander off and eat a local villager.
That’s why one of the brilliant initiatives that India has come up with to protect tigers is to give incentives to the humans who live close to them to move away.
In turn, giving the tigers more space to live and fewer opportunities to gobble up a person.
Do you want to know what to do when you encounter a tiger?
It’s not likely that you will ever come across a tiger, but given that the US has an estimated 10,000 tigers, some of which escape captivity, it would be wise to know what to do if you are faced with one.
According to the Guardian, after a Georgia zoo was flooded and a tiger ran away, they released a list of safety measures to take if you happen to bump into one and you want to survive the encounter.
- Don’t run—cats love to chase, and you will look like a massive cat nip toy to this predator.
- Don’t approach it either.
- Stand up as tall as you can.
- Climb the nearest tall thing like a tree. Cats are not great climbers, and the tiger isn’t likely to follow suit.
- Do not urinate.
Yeah, that’s the advice. Who the hell thought it would be a great idea to pee near a tiger anyway?
The Guardian says that a tiger will see this as a threat to their territory, but I want to know who was the doofus who was faced with a literal tiger and thought, ‘yeah, now is a great time to pee.’
Here’s to hoping that the Choudhary family recovers fully and quickly and that they never run into a tiger again.
