Picture: Thai Rath
A Karen man tending his cows and buffaloes in the west of Thailand was attacked by a tiger yesterday morning.
It was in the same area where rangers found two tiger skins drying and tiger meat on a barbecue. Several men were arrested and charged with poaching though they claimed they were just farmers protecting their stock.
Saser was with three other farmers. They had moved their 120 head of cattle in the wake of the shooting of the other tigers, reported Thai Rath.
Yesterday morning they were checking up on their herd that was grazing two kilometers from a village in the Thong Pha Phum area of Kanchanaburi. They feared another tiger may attack them.
And so it proved, but it was a man who was attacked.
Suddenly a tiger jumped out and savaged Saser in the neck. He had a total of twenty wounds and was later ferried by river transport to Paholpolpayuhasena Hospital in Kanchanaburi due to the serious nature of his wounds, said local district chief Noppadech Kliawsirikul.
Wildlife expert Edwin Wiek told ASEAN NOW a couple of weeks ago that there are about 180 wild tigers in Thailand.
He suggested that the men responsible for the tiger shooting and skinning incident were probably trying to make money from the sale of the animal's body parts like skin, bones and penises.
This latest case - still very unusual in Thailand - raises the whole question of the rights of farmers to raise their stock and their inevitable confrontation with tigers as the latter's population increases.