Tiger attacks: 9 people killed in 3 months across 2 national parks

India’s tiger population rose to 2,967 in 2018, about 700 more than in 2014. (Photo by Deep Rajwar via Pexels)

Attacks by tigers on people in two of India’s popular wildlife reserves are causing alarm, authorities say.

Reports reaching the Indian capital say severe restrictions have been imposed by authorities on movement of safari vehicles in Corbett tiger reserve after wild cats attacked and killed two men last month.

And in other incidents, tigers have killed two people last week in Bandhavgarh Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. A senior wildlife officer from Bandhavgarh told Moneycontrol that on both occasions, the wild cats entered villages and picked up people from their homes.

Tigers and human settlements engaged in farming and livestock, packed densely together will not solve this problem but will only aggravate it.

- Dr Ullas Karanth

Singh said as many as seven people have been killed by tigers in Bandhavgarh in the last three months. “We are investigating why such attacks are happening. We have not declared the tigers, (or) reached any logical conclusion yet.”

The Bandhavgarh tiger reserve is spread across 1536 sq km and has a population of 165 wild cats, besides other wild animals.

Seasoned tiger expert Raghu Chundawat said India will have to seriously rethink its wildlife strategies to avoid man-animal conflict. “These conflicts are increasing and people living close to the forest need to be educated first, and they need to be made aware of the forest laws. The government must actively get involved and ensure alternatives for villagers,” Chundawat told Moneycontrol.

2 killings in Corbett

In the case of recent deaths in Corbett tiger reserve, forest officials of the Uttarakhand government have instructed officials in Corbett to completely sanitise the area after the attacks happened last month.

Tour operators have been banned from travelling to certain areas in the park, most importantly in the grassland, a savannah-type open land of wild grass next to the Ramganga river. The grassland - claim tour guides - is the best place to spot tigers, elephants, wild boars, deer and a variety of migratory birds.

But now, it will be out of bounds for the tourists.

The move is seen as a dampener for the tour operators and tourists. It is like not allowing visitors inside the Taj Mahal complex and asking them to have a look from afar.

Corbett officials are in a Catch-22 situation. They cannot shut down the forest and lose revenue. And they cannot fence the whole forest. India’s oldest national park, Corbett is spread over 521 sq. km. It is part of the larger Corbett Tiger Reserve comprising 1,288 sq. km of dense forest, including adjacent protected areas. Only 15 percent of the forests are open to tourists.

Two Nepali labourers were killed last month near Dhikala, the most important zone and the last outpost in the wildlife reserve that is open to visitors. A portion of one of the victims was devoured by the tigers, who were a pack of four, claim Corbett officials.

The attacks have triggered alarm but Corbett officials said it was too premature to declare the wild cats maneaters.

The tigers, claim forest officials, are - however - distinctly different from the ones which attacked and killed some people in the fall of 2022 and in January this year.

The forest official, analysing the recent incident, said the pack of wild cats include three young male and a young female. “They are all litters of a big tigress who was named Ghaswali sherni because she mostly stayed in the grasslands next to Dhikala. But recently, she was pushed away by her litter from the area.

Close call

In another incident, a huge tiger shocked many near the Garjia Devi temple when it rushed to cross the main thoroughfare of the jungle. The incident rattled villagers who immediately issued instructions to people to remain alert. “We have restricted the movement because we need to sanitise the area,” an official said on condition of anonymity. The official, who cannot be quoted because they are not authorised to speak to the media, said the fear of maneater tigers now looms large among forest officials and tour operators at the Corbett national park, where attacks by big cats have increased over the past one year.

“But it is a fact that the tigers are increasingly coming close to the human habitat. Like these two attacks which happened right outside the Dhikala tourist lodges,” Subhas, a senior guide told this reporter from Ramnagar, the nearest town from the tiger reserve.

Dr Ullas Karanth, one of India’s top tiger experts, said the other alternative is to keep constant vigil at the electrified gates, especially during the days when the gates are opened for the safari jeeps to move out and move in. “High density populations of tigers occupy less than 1 percent of India's land secured in our wildlife reserves. The government's new strategy after 2006, of encouraging increasing human settlements and encroachments even within these protected nature reserves, will only aggravate this problem in future. Tigers and human settlements engaged in farming and livestock, packed densely together will not solve this problem but will only aggravate it," said Dr Karanth.

“We have an acute deficiency of pragmatic wildlife science in India's conservation because money is now flooding tiger conservation with no serious ecological audits,” he further said.

Dr Karanth told Moneycontrol that if any tiger loses its inherent fear of humans, and starts stalking and hunting them as prey, then such animals should be actively hunted down and killed as swiftly as possible.  “Attempts to tranquilise such tigers or to hold them in captivity are pointless, and will only make the difficult task of saving wild tigers even harder.”

Corbett is surrounded by more than 150 hotels and resorts. With unplanned tourism and free movement inside the forests, the habitat of the big cat is shrinking fast.

Suab Ali, a former cook who worked at the forest rest houses inside the reserve said tigers are regularly coming out of the forest. “There is a lot of fear in Corbett. The visitors are very worried,” said Ali.

Corbett has the highest tiger density among all 53 reserves in India. (Photo credit: Pixabay via Pexels)

Why did the attacks happen in Corbett?

“We have a feeling these young wild cats have not learnt the art of capturing deer or wild boars. Hence, they have been attacking people living in Dhikala,” the official further said. According to reports reaching the Indian capital, the first attack happened on November 14, 2023, near Thandi Road zone of Dhikala, the last outpost in the forest. The victim, a Nepali labourer, was returning home after work. Local villagers rush to the spot, forcing the tiger to run.

The second incident happened right outside the Dhikala tourist complex on the evening of November 19, 2023. A Nepali worker engaged in cutting wild grass was attacked by a pack of tigers and dragged inside the forest.

Wildlife officials stationed in Dhikala rushed to the spot and opened fire and burst crackers to disperse the wild cats and retrieve the body of the worker. “By the time the body was recovered, the tigers had eaten a portion of the hips,” said Subhas.

“What has set off panic is that the second attack happened right outside the electric fence of Dhikala, which is full of tourists all the time. The tiger, or tigers, could have easily walked inside the complex. Luckily the gates were closed,” the official said.

The official said the fact that the tigers have tasted blood is not good news for the reserve.

The latest attack happened in January this year when a labourer was picked up by the tiger, his half-eaten body recovered the next day. Project Tiger officials had said the victim, along with two of his accomplices, was smoking marijuana near the forest when the tiger attacked from behind. But the tiger was captured and sent to a rehabilitation home nearby.

In another incident, in October 2022, the tiger picked up a forest guard near Khilanauli, which has a forest rest house (FRH) meant for VIPs. The half-eaten body of the guard was found a few days later, said sources at the tiger reserve. The incident never made it to the local dailies.

Stray incidents of tiger attacks in Corbett have been reported over the past five years or so.

Safari jeep operators say there is no guarantee that the big cat will not travel to other rest houses. With 14 big cats every 100 sq. km, Corbett has the highest tiger density among all of India’s 53 tiger reserves.

Barring five months—mid-July to mid-November—the park is open for visitors.

India’s tiger population rose to 2,967 in 2018, about 700 more than in 2014. The WWF says that since the start of the 20th century, over 95 percent of the world's tiger population has been lost. India is home to more than half of the world's 3,900 tigers living in the wild.