Rajkot: A 31-year-old man was killed in a suspected lion attack at a village in Kodinar taluka of Gir Somnath district, forest department officials reported after recovering his body early on Tuesday.The victim, Mahesh Rathod, was a resident of Valadar village, under Jamvala range of Gir West forest division. His body, bearing wounds characteristic of a wild animal attack, was located around 2am.According to his family, Rathod had spent the past two months in Porbandar looking for work. He returned to the village just two days earlier for the funerary rites of a relative. While his family stayed within the village, Rathod stayed alone in a kutcha house on the village pastureland) and had been sleeping outdoors when he vanished during the night.Relatives initially suspected he may have departed without notice. After efforts to contact him failed, his brother registered a missing person’s report on Monday.A search by family members and local villagers led to the discovery of his remains around 1am on Tuesday in a forested area several kilometres away from his residence. Local police and forest officials were alerted. After an inspection of the site, the authorities confirmed that ground evidence pointed to a lion attack. The remains have since been sent for a postmortem.“After the postmortem, we will know how he lost consciousness and will determine the exact sequence of events,” said Prashant Tomar, deputy conservator of forests (Gir West). “We have set traps to capture the lion,” Tomar said.
