At home in tiger terrain
GOSABA:
Gopal Mondal, wiry fisherman in his mid-40s who lives in Pakhirala
village in the Sunderbans, narrates a harrowing tale in a voice that
barely shakes or betrays traces of emotion. He tells us how a tiger
sneaked into his hut in the dead of night as he was sleeping, nearly a
decade back, and almost dragged him away into the forests. Gopal's
sangfroid probably comes with the passage of time, but there is no
escaping the fear in his eyes.
In this village, at the edges of the world's largest mangrove forest, the tiger is the king. And the king goes where he pleases. Pakhirala, like many other villages scattered all around the Sunderbans, is under a reign of terror. There are around 100 tigers in the forests, and lakhs of humans who consider this inhospitable terrain their home, but there's no dispute over who's boss. But there's a curious development of late. Even five years ago, tiger straying into villages used to be regular affairs. There are still some isolated incidents, but the number has gone down in recent years (see box).
If the lack of tiger straying into villages is any indication of forest management, Sunderbans — with only two incidents reported from the tiger reserve area in the last two years — is doing well. So, why are forest experts seeing it as a worrying sign? As many as 17 human deaths, the highest in the last 12 years, were reported this year from the core areas, where fishing is banned. If efforts to keep tigers from sneaking into villages have yielded result, locals and experts believe the big cats are frequently shifting their territory, sometimes even leaving the tiger reserve area, to escape human pressure.
Just outside the core forest area of Chamta, Dibakar Sarkar of Mollakhali looks happy and satisfied with his catch: 70kg of crab, which sells at anything between Rs 700 and Rs 800 per kilo in the local markets. After sharing profits with two of his neighbours, who accompanied him on his boat deep inside the forest, he can still pocket at least Rs 20,000. After having spent 10 days skirting death, he will undertake another illegal fishing trip a few days later. But isn't he scared of tigers? "Nowadays, tigers are difficult to find in the swamps," Dibakar says. "There is tremendous human pressure, you see." According to him, due to human presence inside the forests, tigers — fiercely territorial creatures — are moving from one island to another. "They are even crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the mangroves frequently. Only a couple of weeks back, I saw a tiger swimming across the Raimangal river to cross over to the Bangladesh side."
Foresters have their own explanation. "Sunderbans is a single mangrove system, and tigers crossing over to Bangladesh and vice-versa is very natural," says Pradeep Vyas, additional principal chief conservator of forests and Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve director. This makes sense. Geographical boundaries have no meaning to tigers, so it's no big deal that they move between the Indian and Bangladeshi portions of the forest system. But one can't overlook the pressure on the forest created by humans, especially the fact that the fishermen who cross the legal boundaries are easily the more profitable ones, even if they have to often pay a rather heavy price for it.
Pashupati Mondal, 58, a resident of Tibligheri whose wife Kalpana died after being attacked by a tiger in the core forest area earlier this year, says fishermen who don't have permits venture even deeper into the forest. "And they easily catch much more than the ones who stay within limits — sometimes even close to two-three quintals per boat," he says. Pashupati, who stopped going inside the forest only a couple of years back, says sighting of prey animals — such as deer and wild boar — has also gone down. "I started venturing into the forests in 1974, when I was only 19. Back then, we used to call the banks of Mechua the 'deerscape', because of their abundance there. Now, you will hardly find deer herds there. Wild boar, too, are difficult to sight. Naturally, we are turning out to be easy prey for tigers," he rues. His wife was dragged away by a big cat in the swamps of Panchamukhani this April.
His views are echoed by Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, a member of the state wildlife advisory board. "There is no doubt that the nylon string fencing now covers a bigger area in the mangroves, thwarting tigers on the lookout for easy prey, like cattle, from entering the villages. So, the big cats, in turn, are targeting human beings who enter the core forests. There is a lack of prey inside the forest, forcing the tigers to kill the fishermen. Steps are also needed to be taken to stop the fishermen's entry into the swamps," he adds.
Questioned on illegal fishing, Soumitra Dasgupta, the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR) field director, says there's the problem of many. "Under the tiger reserve area, we issue 706 boat permits. But an additional 2,500 permits are issued for the South 24-Parganas forest division. They, too, sneak into the tiger reserve," he says, adding there are steep fines to discourage the fishermen from entering the mangroves. When it comes to the matter of tiger strayings having gone down, the foresters look content with their effort. "The nylon net fencing, that's spread over an area of almost 90km, and monitored by the forest staff every hour, has kept tigers at bay. Two such cases happened this year in places opposite Jamespur and Dayapur villages, where the nets were torn up by some villagers seeking illegal entry into the forests," Dasgupta adds.
Anurag Danda, the Sunderbans chapter head of WWF-India, believes more efforts are needed to bring the fishermen to the mainstream. "People getting killed after venturing into the woods is a bigger conflict, compared with tigers sneaking into villages. One needs to discourage them and bring them closer to the mainstream to check this conflict," he adds.
The theory that tigers — on the lookout for new territory — are actually "leaving" the reserve area, is bolstered with the twin straying incidents this year at Jharkhali in the South 24-Parganas forest division, which witnesses such cases every year, though not on a large scale. "In both cases, the tigers had strayed out of Pirkhali forest under the tiger reserve area to enter the villages of Jharkhali, that is under the South 24-Parganas forest division. In the more recent straying at Kultoli under the same forest division, we couldn't rule out the possibility of the tiger having strayed out of the reserve area, and we therefore released it back into the core tiger reserve after capturing it from the village," Vyas adds.
Fifty-year-old Banamali Mondal of Dayapur village, where a tiger had entered this year from the swamps of Sudhanyakhali, sums it up with a phrase that's popular in this area: "Bagher deray manusher adda (human pressure on tiger habitat)." This, he says has only two possible consequences. "Either the big cats will sneak more and more into human habitat, or they will leave the forest in search of new territories."
In this village, at the edges of the world's largest mangrove forest, the tiger is the king. And the king goes where he pleases. Pakhirala, like many other villages scattered all around the Sunderbans, is under a reign of terror. There are around 100 tigers in the forests, and lakhs of humans who consider this inhospitable terrain their home, but there's no dispute over who's boss. But there's a curious development of late. Even five years ago, tiger straying into villages used to be regular affairs. There are still some isolated incidents, but the number has gone down in recent years (see box).
If the lack of tiger straying into villages is any indication of forest management, Sunderbans — with only two incidents reported from the tiger reserve area in the last two years — is doing well. So, why are forest experts seeing it as a worrying sign? As many as 17 human deaths, the highest in the last 12 years, were reported this year from the core areas, where fishing is banned. If efforts to keep tigers from sneaking into villages have yielded result, locals and experts believe the big cats are frequently shifting their territory, sometimes even leaving the tiger reserve area, to escape human pressure.
Just outside the core forest area of Chamta, Dibakar Sarkar of Mollakhali looks happy and satisfied with his catch: 70kg of crab, which sells at anything between Rs 700 and Rs 800 per kilo in the local markets. After sharing profits with two of his neighbours, who accompanied him on his boat deep inside the forest, he can still pocket at least Rs 20,000. After having spent 10 days skirting death, he will undertake another illegal fishing trip a few days later. But isn't he scared of tigers? "Nowadays, tigers are difficult to find in the swamps," Dibakar says. "There is tremendous human pressure, you see." According to him, due to human presence inside the forests, tigers — fiercely territorial creatures — are moving from one island to another. "They are even crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the mangroves frequently. Only a couple of weeks back, I saw a tiger swimming across the Raimangal river to cross over to the Bangladesh side."
Foresters have their own explanation. "Sunderbans is a single mangrove system, and tigers crossing over to Bangladesh and vice-versa is very natural," says Pradeep Vyas, additional principal chief conservator of forests and Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve director. This makes sense. Geographical boundaries have no meaning to tigers, so it's no big deal that they move between the Indian and Bangladeshi portions of the forest system. But one can't overlook the pressure on the forest created by humans, especially the fact that the fishermen who cross the legal boundaries are easily the more profitable ones, even if they have to often pay a rather heavy price for it.
Pashupati Mondal, 58, a resident of Tibligheri whose wife Kalpana died after being attacked by a tiger in the core forest area earlier this year, says fishermen who don't have permits venture even deeper into the forest. "And they easily catch much more than the ones who stay within limits — sometimes even close to two-three quintals per boat," he says. Pashupati, who stopped going inside the forest only a couple of years back, says sighting of prey animals — such as deer and wild boar — has also gone down. "I started venturing into the forests in 1974, when I was only 19. Back then, we used to call the banks of Mechua the 'deerscape', because of their abundance there. Now, you will hardly find deer herds there. Wild boar, too, are difficult to sight. Naturally, we are turning out to be easy prey for tigers," he rues. His wife was dragged away by a big cat in the swamps of Panchamukhani this April.
His views are echoed by Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, a member of the state wildlife advisory board. "There is no doubt that the nylon string fencing now covers a bigger area in the mangroves, thwarting tigers on the lookout for easy prey, like cattle, from entering the villages. So, the big cats, in turn, are targeting human beings who enter the core forests. There is a lack of prey inside the forest, forcing the tigers to kill the fishermen. Steps are also needed to be taken to stop the fishermen's entry into the swamps," he adds.
Questioned on illegal fishing, Soumitra Dasgupta, the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR) field director, says there's the problem of many. "Under the tiger reserve area, we issue 706 boat permits. But an additional 2,500 permits are issued for the South 24-Parganas forest division. They, too, sneak into the tiger reserve," he says, adding there are steep fines to discourage the fishermen from entering the mangroves. When it comes to the matter of tiger strayings having gone down, the foresters look content with their effort. "The nylon net fencing, that's spread over an area of almost 90km, and monitored by the forest staff every hour, has kept tigers at bay. Two such cases happened this year in places opposite Jamespur and Dayapur villages, where the nets were torn up by some villagers seeking illegal entry into the forests," Dasgupta adds.
Anurag Danda, the Sunderbans chapter head of WWF-India, believes more efforts are needed to bring the fishermen to the mainstream. "People getting killed after venturing into the woods is a bigger conflict, compared with tigers sneaking into villages. One needs to discourage them and bring them closer to the mainstream to check this conflict," he adds.
The theory that tigers — on the lookout for new territory — are actually "leaving" the reserve area, is bolstered with the twin straying incidents this year at Jharkhali in the South 24-Parganas forest division, which witnesses such cases every year, though not on a large scale. "In both cases, the tigers had strayed out of Pirkhali forest under the tiger reserve area to enter the villages of Jharkhali, that is under the South 24-Parganas forest division. In the more recent straying at Kultoli under the same forest division, we couldn't rule out the possibility of the tiger having strayed out of the reserve area, and we therefore released it back into the core tiger reserve after capturing it from the village," Vyas adds.
Fifty-year-old Banamali Mondal of Dayapur village, where a tiger had entered this year from the swamps of Sudhanyakhali, sums it up with a phrase that's popular in this area: "Bagher deray manusher adda (human pressure on tiger habitat)." This, he says has only two possible consequences. "Either the big cats will sneak more and more into human habitat, or they will leave the forest in search of new territories."
***
Search for man-eating tiger in border areas continues
PANAJI: The state forest department is keeping watch in border areas
and has also alerted villagers in the region, as a tiger released in
Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary is believed to have killed a young woman in
Khanapur, Karnataka.
While Karnataka officials are engaged in a search of the big cat from Chikmagalur released in the jungle of Talewadi in Khanapur taluk, their counterparts in Goa have also initiated efforts to keep vigil on the familiar tiger trails. Goa has one or two big cats and the evidence through a camera trap was taken sometime back. There is no report of these two bigs cats attacking humans in the region.
But sources said that the female, which had attacked and killed a woman in Chikmagalur has not entered Goa so far.
The villagers from Mudgai, a village near Jamboti, near Goa's border have claimed that the tiger had killed Anjana Appana Hanbar on December 24.
Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary in Karnataka is contiguous to Mhadei wildlife sanctuary in Goa and forms a solid corridor for wild life along with other protected areas of both states.
source
While Karnataka officials are engaged in a search of the big cat from Chikmagalur released in the jungle of Talewadi in Khanapur taluk, their counterparts in Goa have also initiated efforts to keep vigil on the familiar tiger trails. Goa has one or two big cats and the evidence through a camera trap was taken sometime back. There is no report of these two bigs cats attacking humans in the region.
But sources said that the female, which had attacked and killed a woman in Chikmagalur has not entered Goa so far.
The villagers from Mudgai, a village near Jamboti, near Goa's border have claimed that the tiger had killed Anjana Appana Hanbar on December 24.
Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary in Karnataka is contiguous to Mhadei wildlife sanctuary in Goa and forms a solid corridor for wild life along with other protected areas of both states.
source
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