Man eating tigers of India

Tiger attacks• Tiger attacks are an extreme form of human–wildlife conflict which occur for

various reasons and have claimed many human lives.

• Man-eaters have been a recurrent problem for India, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal.

• Study of deaths due to tiger attacks estimates that at least 373,000 deaths due to tiger attacks between 1800 and 2009.

• In Southeast Asia, attacks gradually declined after peaking in the nineteenth century, but attacks in South Asia have remained high, particularly in the Sundarbans.

reasons• In some cases tigers change their natural diet and become man-eaters, usually

caused by a tiger being incapacitated by a gunshot wound or some other factors, such as health issues and disabilities.

• Tigers will only attack a human if they cannot physically satisfy their needs otherwise.

• Although humans are relatively easy prey tigers are typically wary of humans and usually show no preference for human meat.

• Generally tiger don’t attack any prey when they are not hungry, but rarely some are habituated to kill, not for food but as a hunting game.

Some well known man eaters

• The Champawat Tiger was a notorious man-eating tigress, killed some 200 men and women of Nepal.

• She moved to Champawat district in the state of Uttarakhand in North India, and continued to kill, bringing her total human kills up to 436.

• The Tigers of Chowgarh were a pair of man-eating Bengal tigers, consisting of an old tigress and her sub-adult cub, which for over a five year period killed a reported 64 people in eastern Kumaon Division of Uttarakhand in Northern India.

• All the three tigers were killed by Jim Corbett.

Some well known man eaters

• The Thak man-eater was a tigress from Eastern Kumaon division, who killed only four human victims, but her story is widely known as the last hunt of the legendary hunter, conservationist and the author Jim Corbett.

Some well known man eaters

• The Tiger of Mundachipallam was a male Bengal tiger which killed 7 people in the vicinity of the village of Pennagram, four miles (6 km) from the Hogenakkal Falls in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. The Mundachipallam tiger was later killed by Kenneth Anderson.

• The Tiger of Segur was a young man-eating male Bengal tiger who killed five people in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu state in South India.

• It was also killed by Kenneth Anderson on the banks of the Segur River.

The man eaters of Sundarbans 

• The Bengal tigers of the Sundarbans used to regularly kill fifty or sixty people a year. This was strange given that the tigers were usually in prime condition and had adequate prey available.

The man eaters of Sundarbans 

• Approximately 600 tigers live in this region, possibly the largest single population anywhere in the world.

• The kill rate has dropped significantly due to better management techniques and now only about three people lose their lives each year.

Some possible reasons for the Sundarbans tigers to be more aggressive towards humans are:•Sundarbans is in coastal area, the water is relatively salty. The saltiness of the water in this area has put them in a state of constant discomfort, leading them to be extremely aggressive.

• Tigers demarcate their territory by their urine which is destroyed by the high tides in the area. The only way for the tiger to defend its territory is to physically dominate everything that enters.

• The tigers find hunting animals difficult due to the continuous high and low tides making the area marshy. Humans travel through the Sundarbans on boats gathering honey and fishing, making for easy prey.

• Weather calamities like cyclones in this part of India and Bangladesh kill thousands, and the bodies drift out in to the swampy waters, where tigers scavenge them and hence give them a taste of human flesh.

• It is also believed that when a person stoops to work, the tiger mistakes them for an animal, and has, over time, acquired a taste for the human flesh.

• Since these tigers see humans often, they are not scared to come near, and hence even come into the human established areas.

victims of tiger attacks

victims of tiger attacks

Some precautions by the people

• Avoiding the Tiger if it comes in front.• Confusing the Tiger-wear a mask on the back of head as they generally attack from back.• Staying Upright and Alert as tigers are more likely to attack a person who is crouched over such as a hunter or someone harvesting a crop• Using a Weapon, the best bet is to use any implement at hand to beat or

stab the tiger until it gets a bit scared.• Less interference in the tiger’s region

Thank You