Tambun Gediu, 60, from an Orang Asli settlement in Kg Sungai Tiang, 75km from Gerik town, was hunting squirrels in the fringes of the Belum forest when he came upon the tiger.
"I was trailing a squirrel and crouched to shoot it with my blowpipe when I saw the tiger.
"That's when I realised that I was being trailed," he said after surgery at Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital here yesterday.
Tambun said he tried to escape by climbing up a tree, but the tiger caught up with him and dragged him down.
"I was terrified and I used all my strength to punch the animal in the face, but it would not budge.
"I had to wrestle with it to keep its jaws away from me, and it would have clawed me to death if my wife had not arrived."
His wife, Han Besau, 55, came to his aid after hearing the tiger's roars and managed to drive the beast away by hitting its head with a large wooden ladle.
