Lions suspected of killing 35-year-old villager in Gujarat

A 35-year-old man was suspected to have been mauled to death by lions on the outskirts of a village in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, said officials Thursday.

The victim was identified as Ramabhai Chudasama, a resident of Gujarda, a coastal village in Mahuva taluka, around 175km from Ahmedabad, they said.

The matter came to light this morning when residents of Gujarda spotted the half-eaten body of Chudasama on the village's outskirts and informed forest staff, said Deputy Conservator of Forest (Bhavnagar) Sandeep Kumar.

Though no one saw Chudasama being attacked by lions during night, officials believe three lions, who are among the 10-odd big cats living in a forest patch near the village, may be the culprits, he told PTI.

Lion trackers, deployed by the forest department to keep an eye on the king of beasts, had spotted a lion, a lioness and a cub on Gujarda's outskirts Wednesday evening, the official said.

"The coastal village is close to a 100-hectare forest patch, which is home to around 10 lions. On Wednesday evening, when Chudasama was roaming on the outskirts of village, trackers asked him not to go any further due to the presence of lions," said Kumar.

"Though he went back to the village, his half-eaten dead body was found from the same location today morning. It is possible he might have come back during night for some work and eventually got killed by those three lions," the senior officer added.

Forest staff has started a search for these three lions to catch them for further probe, said Kumar.

"Even today, these lions were located just 500 meters away from the spot where Chudasama's body was found. We are now trying to catch these lions so that we can examine their scat.

"If we find any human remains, it will be established that the man was killed by these lions," he said.