Tigers killing men to guard their ‘home’

Thursday’s attack on the middle aged woman is one of the many attacks by tigers on humans walking on foot in the forests of Ranthambhore. While there have been dozens of charges by tigers over the past decade, some attacks have resulted in death of humans. However, off late the number of incidents of such attacks has increased.

The most infamous tiger in recent years from Ranthambhore has been T-24 popularly called Ustaad. The dominant tiger had a nack of stalking tourists even in jeeps and canters. Though feline is in a secluded area in Sajjangarh Biological Park in Udaipur, its name is associated with killing of a forest guard Rampal Saini in 2015. 

There were several other human kills that occurred in Ustad’s territory, however, they could never be associated with the feline as Ustad was never seen with the bodies. 

These occurred on July 3, 2010 at Firing area near gas plant at Sawai Madhopur city wherein one Ghamandi Meena was killed. On March 9, 2012, one Ashfq from Ansari Mohalla was killed when the man was near the forest area. On October 25, 2013, forester Ghisu Singh was killed.

In 2018 itself there have been three attacks wherein people have died while countless other charges by tigers on villagers living on the periphery of the park have also occurred. 

The first attack of 2018 occurred on January 12 when a youth–Mukesh Gurjar–was attacked while grazing goats in Khandar region of the Reserve. In August, a youth ventured near two mating tigers in Khandar area and was attacked and mauled. Soon after the incident, tiger T-28 ventured too close to human habitation and had to be tranquilised after a huge mob gathered to take a look at the feline. The irritated tiger was tranquilised as the forest officials failed to handle the crowd, however, in this case, the feline died due to overdose.

Going back in time, on February 16, 2012, one Morpali Meena was killed by a tiger at Baso Khurd. This incident occurred after two years of a similar incident wherein on August 15, 2010, one Hemraj Gurjar of Gopalpura village was killed at Indala. In the same year, one Badri Kumar of Shyampura village was killed on February 21, while one February 15, 2005, one Shankar Jat from Mai Kala village was also killed.