Incidence of tiger attacks on the rise in Sundarbans

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Saturday, 04 February 2012

Author / Source : UNB

Dhaka, Feb 3: The incidents of tiger attacks have increased recently in the world’s biggest mangrove Sundarbans having the largest single population of Royal Bengal Tiger in one area, claiming seven people in last one week. A total of 53 people came under tiger attacks in the Sundarbans last year. Of them, 34 were killed and 19 others injured severely, according to sources at the Sundarbans Tiger Project Friday.
Tigers snatched away about 21 goats while villagers killed two tigers who intruded into the villages adjoining the Sundarbans last year.
Two ‘golpata’ (tree leaves) collectors were killed in tiger attacks in the Sundarbans west zone under Koira sub-district of Khulna district on Wednesday-Thursday.
Hazrat Ali, 40, of Kushodanga village was killed by a tiger while collecting `golpata’ from Marki Khal area on Thursday while Abdul Majid, 38, met the same fate in the same area on Wednesday, Sundarbans west zone Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Md Zahiruddin said.
On January 31, a tiger protector Kawsar Morol, leader of Tengrakhali Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT), was killed in tiger attack inside Satkhira Range of the Sundarbans.
Once, the area under the Sundarbans was double the existing forests. But, the area of the mangrove forest, only habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger, is diminishing day by day due to population pressure, Chief Executive of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) Dr M Anwarul Islam said.
“People are building houses close to the Sundarbans. Tiger lives alone in its own territory. As the areas under forests are diminishing gradually, tigers are compelled to seek fresh shelter. And in such forays, people fall victims of tiger attacks,” he said.
He said the locals aggressively depend on the Sundarbans. They go to the forests for extracting resources and poaching wildlife, so their interaction with the tigers has increased than in the past.
Dr M Anwarul Islam, also a Professor of Zoology at the Dhaka University, said: “People who live near and around the Sundarbans have not enough work opportunities except going the Sundarbans for their livelihood.”
He said the tigers may be facing food crisis in Sundarbans as poaching of wildlife, including deer and other animals, have been going on in an alarming rate. “So, food shortage may be another reason behind the tiger attacks on humans.”
Zoologists cite a number of reasons behind the increasing tiger attack on humans.

They said since the Sundarbans is located in a coastal area, the water there is relatively salty. In all other habitats, tigers drink fresh water. It is rumored that the water salinity in the area has put the tigers in a state of constant discomfort, rendering them to be extremely aggressive.
The high tides in the area destroy the tiger’s urine and scat which serve as territorial markers. Thus, the only way for a tiger to defend its territory is to physically dominate everything that enters in its domain.
Another possibility is that these tigers have grown used to human flesh due to the weather. Cyclones in this part of India and Bangladesh kill thousands of people, and the bodies drift out into the swampy waters, where tigers scavenge them.
Tigers find hunting animals difficult due to the continuous high and low tides making the area marsh-like and slippery. Humans travel through the Sundarbans on boats to gather honey and for fishing, becoming easy prey to attack by tigers.
When a person stops to work, the tiger mistakes him for an animal, and has, over time, acquired a ‘taste’ for the human flesh, according to experts.
Ashraful Haque, assistant coordinator of Sundarbans Tiger Project, said the tiger attack on humans was on the rise in Satkhira Range last year, but this trend also continues in Khulna Range this year.
“We’ve to conduct a study to find out the exact reason behind the tiger attacks,” he said.     UNB