BHOPAL: An 18-year-old girl was killed by a tiger in core area of Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh – the third such tiger kill in a week.Like the others, the teenager was stooping to gather mahua flowers when the tiger lunged. And like the other two, she wasn’t eaten, either, leading foresters to believe tigers are mistaking the crouching mahua collectors for four-legged prey. Wednesday’s victim was identified as Santoshi Balchand.Santoshi was collecting mahua flowers inside Pench’s Thuepani area when the tiger grabbed her by the neck, killing her on the spot.Only a day ago, Pench Reserve officials had tranquilized and captured a tigress that had killed a girl in the buffer zone last Wednesday. A couple of days later, a woman was killed by tigress in Khitoli region of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.Forest officials routinely advise villagers not to pick up flowers as they walk anywhere in the buffer zone.Last Wednesday, villagers had torched a ranger’s vehicle in Pench, alleging that the foresters did nothing despite being told that a tigress, which had killed an 18-year-old girl that day, had attacked a boy in the area a week earlier. Eight people were booked by police for setting the jeep on fire.Similar incidents are being reported from Maharashtra side of the Pench Tiger Reserve. A 56-year-old man collecting mahua flowers was mauled by a tiger in the West Pench range on Monday evening. Though mahua flowers have several uses, they are mostly sold to make liquor. On April 8, a woman was killed in the buffer zone of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. On April 11, another mahua collector from Kawdapeth in the Mul forest range was killed by a tiger in the forest. Ten people have been killed by wild animals in Chandrapur district alone since January this year.