Mom Saves Son by Reportedly Fighting Off Tiger with Her Bare Hands

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A woman in India was hospitalized with serious injuries after fighting off a tiger that was trying to take her 15-month-old baby on Sunday.

Archana Choudhary was taking her son Raviraj outside of their hut to relieve himself when a tiger — believed to have come from the nearby Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh — attacked, according to the BBC and The Times of India.

The tiger pounced from the bushes and tried to sink its teeth into the baby's head, attempting to drag him away, per The Times. Choudhary immediately got between the animal and her son, and she screamed for help as she fought off the tiger using only her bare hands, the newspaper reports.

The incident lasted several minutes before nearby villagers came to her aid, and the tiger eventually retreated.

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The mother suffered punctured lungs and wounds to her abdomen while the toddler had deep gashes on his head, according to The Times. A doctor told BBC Hindi that the child's wounds were not serious, but that Choudhary's were.

"She has been admitted to the hospital. She is out of danger and recovering. The baby is also doing fine," local official Sanjeev Shrivastava told AFP, according to CBS News.

The BBC also reported that Dr. Misthi Ruhela in the nearby city of Jabalpur said that both mother and child were being treated in the intensive care unit and had been given anti-rabies shots.

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A local forest authority told reporters they hoped to locate and capture the tiger, and Shrivastava told BBC they were taking steps to ensure that more tigers wouldn't wander into villages. The Times also reports that villagers have been asked to stay indoors at night.

PEOPLE's requests for comment from Shrivastava, the Madhya Pradesh Police Department and the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve were not immediately returned.

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India is the home of more than 70 percent of the tigers in the world. In 1972, Parliament passed the Wildlife Protection Act and launched a government-sponsored effort to create tiger reserves.

Humans have been settling closer and closer to those reserves, resulting in an increase of attacks. The government reported in April a total of 108 deaths from tiger attacks in the country from 2019 to 2021.