Hunted turn hunters

NAGBHID/CHANDRAPUR: Nilkanth Arsode hasn’t been so scared in his life before. In constant pain from the deep gashes and bruises that he suffered during a life-threatening encounter with a tiger last week, the 60-year old is terrified of falling asleep. “I wake up every night shivering in fear,” says Arsode.

Arsode was attacked by the wild cat at his employer’s farm in Lakhmapur village, a few km from his own village of Sawarla. “Its huge paws missed my face by a whisker, but its nails scratched my nose,” he says. The nose is swollen and disfigured beyond recognition. “I am very lucky to be alive. I must have done some good deeds earlier.”

But not everyone has been so lucky in the 50-odd villages which surround the forest areas of Nagbhid and Mul-Saolki in Chandrapur district, where the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve is located.

At least four tigers, outside the protected forest area, have killed and devoured about 15 men and women, apart from swallowing tens of cattle. The forest areas of Chandrapur, including the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, are estimated to have a population of over 70 tigers, and increasing every month.

Villagers point out that over the last three months, the frequency of such attacks has been increasing. Only a month ago, a tiger on the prowl killed 50-year-old Parvatabai Madavi in Rajuli village, 20 km from Nagbhid. The attack on Parvatabai was the seventh in the last three months.

“I saw it attacking her,” says Manisha Kudmethe, an eyewitness. “But we were so terrified by the tiger’s roar that we all ran back to our village in shock”.

“We do not have any courage to go out of the village alone these days,” says an elderly Dnyaneshwar Meshram. “Forest officials aren?t doing anything about it.”

“We have a serious problem in the hands if tigers are attacking humans for food,” warns tiger conservationist Nitin Desai of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) “Maybe tigers are not able to find any food in the forest, which is why they are after humans. It’s also an indication that the tiger population has spilled over from the TATR, as it can’t accommodate additional population of tigers any more.”

Even forest guards in the range fear for their lives. “Yes, these wild cats appear to have turned man-eaters,” says one of them. “Moving in this area alone is risky.”

The issue has also acquired political overtones with the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Mul-Saoli constituency, Shobhatai Fadnavis, taking the forest officials to task for apparently not showing urgency. “I’ve been raising this issue for some time, but forest officials aren’t doing anything. We had raised it in Vidhan Sabha as well. A tiger turning a man-eater is a grave problem for the locals. It’s wrecked farming operations and paralysed their day-to-day affairs,” he says.

Desai says the solution lies in managing the tiger reserve areas better. “We have to increase the Project Area (PA) network and allocate more money to manage tigers in non-PA areas,” he says.

Environmentalist Valmik Thapar suggests setting up of a special task force to monitor and map all the killings. “One should determine whether it is one tiger or more, and identify them. These tigers then need to be tranquilised and shifted to a zoo,” he says. “At the same time, there is need to relocate villagers in forest areas elsewhere.”

Thapar says that tigers attack humans only when they intrude into their habitat. “This is glaring example that there is no co-existence possible between tigers and humans and all the false propaganda from tribal activists regarding man’s great affinity with tigers is rubbish.”