A Bengal tiger leaped onto a fishing boat and snatched a man from it on Thursday in Eastern India.
According to the Associated Press, the incident happened while the victim, Sushil Manjhi, was crab fishing with his son, Jyotish and daughter, Molina, in a stream in the Sunderbans National Park.
"Shortly after we reached the spot, around 7 a.m., we got a whiff of a strange odor. We immediately decided to turn back to a safer zone," the victim’s 20-year-old son told the Times of India. "Suddenly, my sister cried out: 'Dada, bagh (tiger).’”
In that instant, the animal snatched their father from the boat.
Manjhi’s children tried beating it with sticks, but it was no use and the large tiger pulled its victim away. The 62-year-old man is presumed dead.
Wildlife officials said that the latest attack is the fourth fatal assault by a tiger in that area this year.
The AP noted that India has more than half of the 3,200 tigers left in the wild, but as the country’s population continues to swell, the tiger habitats are shrinking.