Locals fearful of suspected killer tiger released near their village in India | Janaki Lenin

A posse of 80 to 100 forest officials, wildlife experts, and veterinarians is camped in the forests of Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary, northern Karnataka. The men’s job is to ensure a certain young tiger causes no problems in the nearby villages. Villagers have been up in arms since 19 November, when forest officials released the tiger 1km from Talawade village. On 15 November, a tiger killed a 36-year-old woman in Pandaravalli in Chikmagalur district, some 300km south of Bhimgad. People working in the coffee plantations in the area had reported seeing tigers in their neighbourhood in the preceding months. One chased a man on a motorbike. In another incident, a tiger jumped on a car while two other tigers stood close by. One followed a coffee estate owner’s automobile for a short distance. Villagers feared someone may be attacked by one of these big cats, as the animal(s) seemed to have no fear of humans. Forest department officials patrolled the area to try and instil confidence in local residents. Two days after the tragedy, forest officials trapped a tiger, believed to be the killer. It seemed destined for a life in a zoo, according to an initial press report. Ullas Karanth, a tiger expert at the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bengaluru, wrote to the chief wildlife warden of the state advising him that the captured tiger’s stripe pattern matched that of a tiger that had chased a vehicle. He identified the tiger as an animal named Bhadra_S5146 in the centre’s tiger identification database and cautioned that the sub-adult animal appeared to have lost its fear of humans. He also explained that the animal may prove difficult to recapture as it may have become trap-shy. A later news report said scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India made a similar recommendation. However, instead of taking the tiger to the zoo, forest officials tried to release the animal at Anshi wildlife sanctuary at night. They were prevented by resident villagers, so released it in the neighbouring sanctuary of Bhimgad, near the state’s border with Goa and Maharashtra, instead. When villagers heard about it, they held the foresters hostage, demanding the tiger be captured and taken away. Officials were at pains to explain the tiger was not a man-eater, and it may have killed the woman by accident. But the tiger had boldly followed a vehicle in Chikmagalur on several occasions, and the body of the woman was discovered half-eaten. The standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the national tiger conservation authority to deal with tigers outside forested areas says, “[C]onfirmed habituated tiger/leopard which ’stalk’ human beings and feed on the dead body are likely to be ‘man-eaters.’” Didn’t officials consider this aberrant behaviour in determining whether the animal was a danger to human life? Vinay Luthra, the chief wildlife warden of the state, said to me in a phone conversation: “People are responsible for the tiger’s behaviour. The tiger is not at fault.” He claims numerous homestays in the area bait tigers for their guests’ viewing pleasure and this has emboldened the cats. What about the news report of scientists advising against the release, I asked. “That’s false. No scientist advised against the release.” He also denied any plan to keep the tiger in captivity. Even if people were at fault and no scientist warned the forest officials, releasing a tiger that has lost its fear of humans in another area is asking for trouble. The SOP says healthy tigers should be released “in a suitable habitat with adequate prey base, away from the territory of a resident male tiger (if any) or human settlements”. So why was the tiger released close to Talawadi village? Luthra replied he wasn’t sure of the exact location, but the tiger was released well within the sanctuary. Few reserves are devoid of settlements. In the meantime, spooked villagers were unmoved by the officials’ arguments and adamantly demanded the removal of the tiger. Forest officials claimed the SOP prohibited them from catching a tiger in a protected forest unless they had orders to do from the chief wildlife wardens. Until such orders arrived, they could only monitor the animal’s movements, they said. The tiger had been collared with a GPS tracker before being released, and they claimed the animal had moved to Mhadei wildlife sanctuary in the neighbouring state of Goa. However, villagers of Degaon, Karnataka, saw a tiger purportedly wearing a collar take a cow on the night of 21 November. On 24 November, a tiger entered Kabanali village and residents chased it away. In an area where farmers have to guard their crops from wild pigs at night, forest officials warned them to stay indoors. They also offered “reasonable compensation” for any crop damage caused by pigs, and vehicles to ferry children to school. In Degaon, a woman got hurt running away from a tiger on 25 November, while other villagers burst crackers and chased the big cat away. A tiger killed a bull in Gavali on 27 November, but the forest officials wouldn’t confirm if it was the released animal. There’s suspicion the GPS tracker malfunctioned and the authorities don’t know the location of the tiger. By this time, panicked people staged a protest in front of a forest department office in the district headquarters, Khanapur. The SOP also says the committee to certify if a tiger was fit to be released ought to include a local village leader. Luthra said NGOs, including the honorary wildlife warden of the area, were involved, but there was no village representation. More than two weeks after agitations began, I asked Luthra on 4 December when the orders to capture the cat would be issued. He replied he hadn’t seen the report sent by his field staff, and he was yet to take a decision to capture the tiger. Until then, villagers living in Bhimgad’s forests have no choice but to live with trepidation.