Beasts Of A Different Stripe

Media sensationalism, public panic, political pressure, muddled thinking – at a time of increased conflict between humans and large carnivores, these interconnected strands have woven a narrative that depicts virtually every tiger that kills a human as a bloodthirsty man-eater. While underscoring how such attitudes are harming the larger cause of tiger conservation in India, Dr. Mayukh Chatterjee explores the complexities of man-eating and man-killing behaviour.

Tigers, except when wounded or when man-eaters, are on the whole very good-tempered.”

~ Jim Corbett

Over the past few years, India has witnessed a surge in the frequency of human-wildlife conflict in its varied dimensions. Attacks on humans by large carnivores inevitably garner the most attention and Forest Department officials are often pressurised into a frenzy of reaction by the public and local politicians. When attempts to address a conflict situation are unsuccessful, they can culminate in acts of violence and outrage by the public – almost always directed at the Forest Department. Many a time the conflict animal is also cornered, killed and mutilated.

An increase in cases that ‘go awry’ has a detrimental impact on a species’ survival prospects in the long run. When the species involved is a national icon like the tiger, things get even more complex.

AS CONFLICT BURNS BRIGHT

Since the 1970s, India has made relentless efforts to protect the tiger – not just as an icon but as an umbrella species, an apex predator that ensures the well-being of entire ecosystems that it resides in. A party to the Global Tiger Recovery Programme endorsed in 2010, which aims at doubling the world tiger population by 2022, India surpassed its set goal of 2100 tigers in 2014 itself. Tiger numbers have continued to rise, but with less than five per cent of the country's landmass remaining as the tiger’s last refuge, an increase in breeding populations can only translate into escalated human tiger conflict.