Mizoram News: Lalzadingi, the woman who killed a tiger with a single blow of an axe 46 years ago, died on Friday due to cancer in her native village, Buarpui, in south Mizoram's Lunglei district, near the Bangladesh border. She was 72.
The tiger killed by the Lalzadingi has been kept at the Mizoram State Museum in Aizawl. According to a Times of India report, she is survived by her husband, four children, and grandchildren. She received Shaurya Chakra for her bravery in 1980 from then-President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in New Delhi.
Lalzadingi’s Encounter With Tiger
Back then, Lalzadingi was only 26 when she had an unexpected encounter with a wild cat in a jungle near 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, as quoted by TOI.
Lalzadingi was gripped by fear after a 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 that 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, as quoted by TOI.
“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 added.
The story of a young woman getting rid of a tiger with just an axe was considered extraordinary back then, and it travelled beyond the borders of Mizoram.