Nature & Animals….. - HereNow4U.net

Animal Crusaders • Commemorative Issue • October 2010SunderbansTiger straying into villages….. some stray thoughts !The Sundarbans forest is theworld’s only mangrove forest withtigers, popularly known as BengalTiger and Sunderbans NationalPark is featured as one of theUnesco- World Heritage Site.Since last couple of years theinvasion of tiger in villages ofSunderbans grew rapidly. Reasonsare diverse, shrinking habitat dueto climate change and cyclonesSidr and Aila, which left behind atrail of devastation since 2007,forced many a Royal Bengal tigerto migrate from Bangladesh intothe Indian side of the Sundarbansisland. Wildlife experts say a goodnumber of tigers might havecome into the Indian forests insearch of food. The number ofdocumented tiger attacks hassoared. According to villagers,there have been 15 already thisyear, six of them fatal. The ranksof the tiger widows are swelling,and the horrifying tales aremultiplying. In the village ofDeulbari in Kultali, everyoneknows someone who has beenattacked by a tiger. Until now,humans and tigers have coexisteduneasily in this outpost in theSundarbans area of West Bengal.This year has been different. Thetigers, having been uprootedfrom its usual terrain, hasdeveloped a taste for humanflesh. In a nutshell, the reasons ofthe invasion is shortage of foodand shrinkage of their corehabitat.74Villagers are now more aware ofTiger conservation and theVillagers’ view are also no lessdiverse. ‘There is a lot of mentalpressure trying to tackle thissituation, ‘We have always livedwith tigers. It is part and parcel oflife here,’ ‘This conflict willcontinue because the man-eatersare looking for humans. ‘Oncethey have the taste of humanflesh, they will always look for it.’‘We love tigers, we can’t hatethem. They are unavoidable, theyare part of the place. There are alot of tigers around now, butwithout the tigers it would not bethe same jungle.’ “We’ve not seensuch a rise in the past 25 years.”Better late than never, the year2009 started with a positive inputfrom the authorities; an expertcommittee comprising seniorofficials from the related statedepartments, several wildlifeexperts, especially those who dealwith tiger-related issues, expertsfrom the Zoological Survey ofIndia, representatives from theWildlife Institute of India andfaculty members of CalcuttaUniversity’s zoologicaldepartment, is to be set up tomonitor the activities of maneaters, as such big cats are called.It will try to find out why the tigersare attacking villagers - officially,there have been at least six suchcases in the past year, but manymore are suspected to have goneunrecorded. It will also suggeststeps to prevent such crises. Letus hope for the best !13521. Two Wild Boars in the sweet-waterpond. Ajmalmari # 7.SBR2. Track mark of Spotted Deer. KalashIsland.SBR3. Peerkhali. Red cloth (locally called“Jhamti”) indicating the Humancasualty. STR4. In search for the Pugmark. ForestGuard Pradip. Kalash Island. SBR5. A Checkered Keelbak hunting a LyathaFish. Kalash.SBR4