AIZAWL: A mummified tiger with its fiery eyes glaring at visitors has been the centre of attraction at the Mizoram State Museum in Aizawl, but the person who was responsible for bringing the big cat from the jungles to the museum seems to have faded out of public memory. Lalzadingi, who had killed the tiger with a single blow of an axe 46 years ago, died of cancer at the age of 72, on Friday at her native village Buarpui in south Mizoram’s Lunglei district near Bangladesh border.She is survived by her husband, four children and grandchildren.
She was only 26 when she had an unexpected encounter with the wild cat in a jungle not far from her village. “I was splitting firewood when I heard an unusual sound behind a nearby bush. I thought it might be a wild boar. I called my friends in a hushed voice but no one seemed to hear me,” Lalzadingi had earlier recounted.
Fear gripped Lalzadingi when a full-grown tiger suddenly appeared from behind the bush. “It drew close to me. I did not have time to think. I raised my axe and struck the animal on its forehead. I was lucky the tiger died in one blow. Had I hit on any other part of its body, the tiger would not have given me a second chance,” she had said. Lalzadingi had said she only had the future of her children in mind when she came face-to-face with the animal. “My two little kids, the younger just three months old, came to my mind… I did not have a choice. I had to kill it before it killed me.”
She was decorated with Shaurya Chakra for her bravery in 1980 and received the award from then President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in New Delhi. A young woman killing a fearsome animal with just an axe was an extraordinary story at that time, and it travelled beyond the borders of Mizoram.
She was only 26 when she had an unexpected encounter with the wild cat in a jungle not far from her village. “I was splitting firewood when I heard an unusual sound behind a nearby bush. I thought it might be a wild boar. I called my friends in a hushed voice but no one seemed to hear me,” Lalzadingi had earlier recounted.
Fear gripped Lalzadingi when a full-grown tiger suddenly appeared from behind the bush. “It drew close to me. I did not have time to think. I raised my axe and struck the animal on its forehead. I was lucky the tiger died in one blow. Had I hit on any other part of its body, the tiger would not have given me a second chance,” she had said. Lalzadingi had said she only had the future of her children in mind when she came face-to-face with the animal. “My two little kids, the younger just three months old, came to my mind… I did not have a choice. I had to kill it before it killed me.”
She was decorated with Shaurya Chakra for her bravery in 1980 and received the award from then President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in New Delhi. A young woman killing a fearsome animal with just an axe was an extraordinary story at that time, and it travelled beyond the borders of Mizoram.