There has been a sudden spurt in tiger attacks on humans in Bandipur National Park and BRT Wildlife Sanctuaries in Chamrajanagar and Mysore districts of Karnataka. Three human deaths and a grievous injury in a short span of one month in Bandipur certainly vouch for the growing concern.
Earlier, five tigers were found dead in BRT right by the road, and later, cubs were seen caught and photographed by the estate manager. The state government has rightly ordered a CID inquiry into this blatant violation of the Wildlife Protection Act. Not a single day passes by without tigers being in the news in these habitats, particularly regarding their encounters with humans — most of which are taking place outside and on the fringes of the forests, bringing them into sharp and sometimes fatal conflict with unsuspecting villagers.
The situation is grim and has forced the intervention of the forest minister, who visited the conflict zone with top officers and held meetings with locals in order to bring a sense of urgency among staff and pacify the villagers. Based on these visits, he suspended safaris, transferred erring officials, and instructed top officials to camp in the forests rather than just showing up occasionally. These steps will no doubt help mitigate the situation and calm the frightened and angry villagers. A few tigers have been caught and relocated by the department as a confidence building measure among the villagers and other residents.
This brings us to the question, why are tigers roaming in the fringe areas and killing people? Tigers venturing out of their habitats and confronting humans is not new but the scale and frequency is uncommon and poses a major challenge for forest authorities.
The reasons are not far to seek. And no, this has nothing to do with the increased population of tigers in these areas (there are around 180 tigers in Bandipur), as some have claimed. Bandipur is not isolated; it is surrounded by similar forests and is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve which covers around 5,600 sq km and holds about 825 tigers, including those in Bandipur and adjoining sanctuaries — namely BRT and Cauvery — along with an additional area of around 1,500 sq km. Luckily, all these regions are mostly interconnected through contiguous forests and corridors, so any spillover tiger can potentially move to these relatively less tiger-populated regions. This was demonstrated when, for the first time, two dead tiger cubs were found by forest guards in Cauvery Sanctuary, showing the possibility of their movement to new areas.
There are also certain inherent flaws in tiger management, the foremost being the failure to reduce disturbances to tigers during their mating season, which is currently underway. When tigers give birth, they seek safe and undisturbed places which are shrinking due to an increase in safaris and other human-induced disturbances, such as creation of roads and culverts, construction of buildings, lantana removal by bulldozers and the movement of labourers for fire control measures and digging cattle-proof trenches.
Incidentally, these partly and semi-filled trenches have become safe havens for littering tigresses, which not only hide cubs from predators but also provide an easily available prey base because wild boars also make these places their home. Forest authorities should cover such trenches passing through village fringes and replace them with heavy-duty solar fences.
The feral dogs that feed on the carelessly dumped meat and poultry by the dozens of resorts (there are around 28 of them, most operating illegally) also bring conflict with wildlife. Out of an estimated 300,000 visitors, most choose to visit these wildlife habitats during October–November which coincides with the littering season and villagers have very rightly raised concerns about the adverse effects of such uncontrolled tourism.
That an early warning system is now being put in place is a welcome decision. This, coupled with frequent visits from staff to reported tiger-sighting areas near surrounding villages, will certainly be useful in reducing the conflict. It will also be equally important to keep the morale of the hardworking frontline staff high. To start with, timely disbursement of salaries and other dues should be ensured. Of course, long-term measures like habitat improvement through rewilding of core forests that have deteriorated over the years due to repeated fires, illegal grazing, illicit removal of non-timber forest products and timber across the border and other such harmful activities need to be dealt with firmly, alongside better protection staff and equipment.
These may include establishing thermal camera traps and night drone systems around susceptible fringes, as well as equipping rescue and rehabilitation centres with better emergency medical facilities for tigers that are captured and brought in. A more accurate system to identify and relocate such tigers needs to be implemented as a standard operating procedure. Villagers’ confidence also needs to be won with a compensation system which is prompt and enhances livelihood opportunities in collaboration with other administrative departments.
