BHOPAL: A 65-year-old Dalit woman in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district displayed extraordinary courage when she fought off a jackal for nearly 30 minutes and ultimately strangled it using a strip of her sari.
Surajia Bai Jatav, a widow and small-scale farmer from Barkhadi village, was attacked on Monday evening while cutting fodder in her field. As she bent to lift a bundle of grass near a culvert around 5 p.m., a jackal pounced, biting her on the legs and hands.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said from her hospital bed.
Alone and bleeding, Surajia clutched the jackal’s jaws to keep it at bay. For over 25 agonizing minutes, she endured repeated bites while trying to overpower the animal. Weak and losing blood, she tore a strip from her sari, fashioned a noose, and slipped it around the jackal’s neck. As it lunged again, she pulled it tight with all her strength until the jackal went limp.
She collapsed unconscious beside the animal.
Villagers discovered her later that evening and rushed her to the hospital. She had suffered 18 bite wounds and was unconscious for several hours.
“We feared the worst until she opened her eyes past midnight,” said a relative.
Doctors confirmed she is stable and receiving anti-rabies treatment. “She’s recovering well and should be discharged in about a week,” a doctor said.
