Bhopal, April 13 : The Dhamokhar buffer zone of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh has witnessed another harrowing tiger attack on the second consecutive day.

Rita Baiga, a 38-year-old woman from Simaria village, was reportedly attacked by a tigress on Sunday morning.

She had ventured into the forest to collect Mahua flowers when she was attacked by a tiger ambushed in the undergrowth. The predator pounced on her, inflicting deep claw wounds to the back of her head.

Rita was rushed to the district hospital Umaria in critical condition, where doctors administered fifteen stitches to her injuries before referring her to Jabalpur for advanced treatment.

'Her wounds were deep, she was referred to Jabalpur,' Dr. Kailash Chandra Soni, the civil surgeon, Umaria district hospital, told IANS.

This attack is the fourth human-tiger encounter within the reserve in just twenty days -- a grim statistic that has already claimed three lives: a man, a woman, and a twelve-year-old boy.

The Mahua season generates additional source of income for tribal and local communities. Mahua flowers are collected during the summers. Yet, this pursuit has become fraught with danger as tiger attacks have surged in villages bordering the reserve.

Over a ten-day period alone, a woman and a fourteen-year-old boy lost their lives in separate incidents.

On Sunday morning, the tigress attacked the Mahua collector Rita near the reserve, she was saved as villagers promptly rushed to scare the animal back into the forest.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Pratipal Singh Mahobia, explained that the park is comparatively small coupled with an increasing tiger population. It has forced these majestic predators into buffer zones.

He added that tigers are particularly active in the early morning hours'the same time villagers collect Mahua flowers. Among the most heartrending tragedies was the attack on twelve-year-old Vijay Kol from Pipariya.

On April 12, he accompanied his grandfather and uncle to the forest to gather Mahua flowers.

Without warning, the same tigress reportedly emerged from the bushes, seized the boy in its powerful jaws, and dragged him into the undergrowth.

Villagers and Tiger Reserve staff launched an immediate search, but Vijay's lifeless body was later discovered in a nearby pool.

/IANS