Tigers are India’s national animal, and classified as endangered under the Wildlife Protection Act.
But in rural India, tigers are also a deadly threat. Unlucky or unwary villagers can be killed and dragged off to be eaten.
To compound the issue, there are villages inside the newly established boundaries of some tiger reserves.
The villagers are basically on their own when it comes to fighting man-eating tigers—and those villagers use whatever methods they have available to them.
Two mean-eaters were caught and killed in India between Nov. 2 and Nov.4.
Bulldozing a Killer
The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve lies in the rugged region of Uttar Pradesh. And villagers, who have lived there for countless generations, have always been at risk.
The villagers who lived at the very heart of the reserve were forced to kill a dangerous tiger on the night of Nov. 4, Fox News reported.
Residents of Chaltua village were outraged that a tigress had mauled one person and murdered another, Times of India reported.
The female tiger caught and killed a 50-year-old farmer named Devanand sometime Sunday, OneIndia reported. Apparently the same animal had mauled another victim 10 days earlier. Villagers vowed to take revenge.
They encircled the big cat, and moved in. Then, with the tiger confused and unsure of which way to run, a villager charged on a farm tractor and crushed the cat under its wheels.
Times of India told a slightly different story.
That paper said that angry villagers charged and attacked some reserve guards, ran over the tiger to cripple it, and then beat it to death with sticks. Also, the victim had left the village limits and trespassed deep into a dangerous area of the reserve.
Dudhwa Reserve Field Director Ramesh Kumar Pandey told Times of India, “It is a clear case of a tigress’s killing in cold blood.”
Despite the fact that the tiger was a known killer, killing tigers in the reserve is a crime.
Mahavir Kaujlagi, deputy field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, told OneIndia, “The carcass of the tigress has been found and appropriate legal action is being taken in the matter, including registration of FIR [First Information Report] against the errant villagers.”
Dudhwa Reserve Field Director Ramesh Kumar Pandey promised that appropriate action would be taken.
A Second Killer Killed
Another mean-eater was killed on Nov. 2, in India’s southwestern state of Maharashta.
A 6-year-old female tiger, named Avni by animal rights activists, was tracked down and killed after a months-long hunt, the Washington Post reported.
Avni had been featured in National Geographic magazine and on the Animal Planet TV channel. Avni was also linked to 13 killings in the past two years in Maharashta.
According to the New York Times, one of a group of hunters hit her with a tranquilizer dart. Avni roared and charged the jeep.
One of the men in the jeep fired a single round and killed her.
“There was no doubt that human lives were in danger. There was a market day and the tiger was just on a road that people use and children cycle on so we had to get there,” the shooter told the Telegraph. “She had tasted human flesh and saw us like monkeys, or goats, or other prey. So when she charged at us I had to shoot in self-defense.”
According to The Telegraph, Avni gave birth to a pair of cubs about a year ago. Conservationists are searching for the cubs, planning to take them to a safari park zoo to be raised in safety.
I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in #Yavatmal, #Maharashtra. #Justice4TigressAvni https://t.co/hX6wuf62Ec
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) November 4, 2018
Tiger Safety Versus Human Safety
According to CNN, about 40,000 tigers lived in India at the start of the 20th century—so approximately 97 percent of India’s tigers were killed in 100 years.
Conservationists applaud the Indian government’s efforts that have raised the number of tigers in India to 2,226 according to a 2014 census. That is a dramatic increase from the 1,411 counted in 2006, using figures provided by India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
As India’s population increases and towns and villages expand, more humans encroach upon tiger’s territories.
“The depletion of forest land through cattle grazing is the biggest problem. Tigers aren’t encroaching on human habitats. It’s human beings who are continuously coming in,” wildlife conservationist Ajay Dubey told CNN.
