West Bengal: An Indian fisherman whose father was killed by a tiger twenty years ago has survived a similar attack.

The Bengal tiger struck on Tuesday as Fatik Halder was crab fishing in the Sunderbans mangrove forest. For 20 minutes he was embroiled in a life or death battle with the animal, which bit and clawed him repeatedly.

Mr Halder then had to survive a traumatic journey to Calcutta to get treatment injuries to his upper body. As Mr Halder fought the tiger he remembered that his father, Gour, had been killed in a similar attack.

“Around 10 o’clock in the morning, when I jumped into the water in Benifeli forest and threw in the [fishing] net, I suddenly felt a searing pain, I didn’t know, for a couple of seconds, what had hit me.”

Realising that he was under attack from a man-eater, Mr Halder decided to fight back. He thought of his two children and wife, who were at home waiting for him to return. He frantically dug his heels into the mud and levered his fingers under the tiger’s jaws.

“The pain was becoming unbearable. I don’t know how I managed to dodge the blows,”  he said.

The animal’s teeth pierced his right shoulder. It tried to wrestle him to the river bed with its paws but the water and mud made it difficult for it to keep its footing and it finally gave up.

Bleeding and traumatised, the injured fisherman then had to survive another ordeal - the 10-hour journey to Calcutta for medical treatment. Fatik’s heroic survival has already passed into local folklore. He now insists that his fishing days are over and that he will be looking for some other job. But perhaps he should consider himself lucky to be nursing his injuries alive. A day before he was attacked another man, Narayan Das, was savaged by a tiger which clawed him in the neck inside the Sunderbans reserve. It happened when Mr Das’ boat became stuck in one of the numerous creeks that criss-cross the mangrove forest and he and other fisherman jumped into the water to push. By the time his friends managed to fend the tiger off using kitchen utensils, sticks and other items, Mr Das was critically injured. He was officially declared dead in the nearest town 100km (62 miles) away. His family will not get any compensation, forestry officials say, because the fishermen were trespassing in the tiger reserve.

Mrs Simmons said: “We only hand-rear the cubs if it is absolutely necessary, but this was Safina’s (Zara’s mother) first baby and she couldn’t feed her due to her young age and inexperience.”

Mrs Simmons said Zara had become “great friends” with her ginger tom cat Arnie since moving into her home, on the zoo site.

“She’s got an absolutely wonderful personality and is very laid back and affectionate. “Arnie the cat loves having cubs in the house and the two are great friends, but we’ll have to guard him as Zara gets bigger and stronger.”

Zara is the latest addition to a family of five lions’ at family-run Linton Zoo, near Cambridge. Her parents Safina and Zuri and her grandparents Riziki and Karla are all at the zoo which has been operating since 1972.

Safina and Zuri are expecting another litter of cubs in October and Ms Simmons believes their brief experience with Zara will help them to be more able to cope next time.

All lions born at Linton Zoo will be moved to Uganda as part of a joint project between West Midlands Safari Park and Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire.

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