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October 19, 2005

Living With Predators - Tigers

As Asia struggles with overpopulation and hunger, people move farther and farther into the wilderness to live and work. Farmers, hunters, and loggers increasingly come in contact with wildlife. This results in more and more conflicts between tigers and humans.

Villages have sprung up in and around national parks and wildlife preserves where tigers live. The villagers brave the tiger reserves at night to illegally collect honey and wood in order to make a living. Unlike most wild tigers, the swamp tigers of the Sundarbans between India and Bangladesh are famous for being man-eaters.

What makes a tiger a man-eater? Most tigers who attack and eat humans are sick or have been injured in some way. However, once they've aqquired the taste - and perhaps realized how easy the hunting can be - they are likely to continue to hunt humans.

Risking Life & Limb To Feed The Family

Tigers live in areas where people are often the most impoverished. Sometimes locals will hunt wildlife like the tiger just to feed the family. There have been several high profile cases lately of tigers killed to be eaten out of hunger and because consuming the flesh of animals such as tigers have long been thought to help improve health and vigor.

In the swamps of the Sundarbans, these man-eating tigers exhibit all sorts of traits not common in your average wild tiger. They're known for sneaking up on the men while they're foraging - often by swimming up to boats and climbing aboard and dragging some unsuspecting villager away. They've have taken to wearing masks on the backs of their heads in order to confuse the tigers and keep them from ambushing them from behind.

Villager Vengeance

Unfortunately, when someone is taken by a tiger, their family and village often retaliates by hunting down the tiger and killing it. This can lead to not only destroying the man-eater, but also other tigers along the way.

Authorities are trying to educate villagers about the tiger situation and how having tigers benefits the local economies by providing tourist income as well as jobs. Parks and reserves are also teaching the locals how to avoid becoming a meal and attempting to condition tigers to avoid humans - for example, by setting up human dummies that cause electric shocks.

Organized Poaching For Profit

Tiger heads, skins and claws are sometimes collected as wildlife trophies, but that's not the only threat facing the tiger today. Tiger parts are considered to have all sorts of medicinal uses - some of which are legit and some of which are myth. The bones of a tiger can be used in all sorts of Chinese medicine, and certain sexual organs are thought to be aphrodisiacs and cures for impotence. Tiger skins are often used in Chinese ceremonial costumes.

Silly as these uses may seem to us, there are a lot of people in the world who really believe in these remedies, and so where there's a demand, there will be a supply - regardless of the protected status of the tiger.

Since Environmental Investigation Agency's visit last year, there has been a massive increase in the availability of tiger and leopard skins in Lhasa, TAR. In the 46 shops surveyed, 54 leopard skin chubas and 24 tiger skin chubas were openly displayed, 7 whole fresh leopard skins were presented for sale and, within the space of 24 hours, investigators were offered three whole, fresh tiger skins.

More at: Tigers under threat from skin trade

Unfortunately, the punishments for tiger poaching are not particularly stringent. As tiger sales become increasingly lucrative, the poor villagers may sometimes come to the conclusion that the opportunity to bag a tiger outweighs any potential punishment or environmental concerns - especially when the proceeds might feed the family, or even the village - for quite some time.

Poachers come from all over the world to hunt the tiger. Much like drug rings, they can be ruthless in their black-market activities. Organized poaching is perhaps the most significant threat to the tigers today, even more than habitat loss. These mafiaesque gangs can systematically wipe out whole tiger preserves, as well as act as a middleman for the independent village poacher. Due to bribery and intimidation, the locals often do not report these poaching gangs to authorities. In one recent case in India, an entire park of tigers up and disappeared over the course of one season.

The raging scandal over the missing tigers of Sariska has shocked the country. Where have the tigers gone?

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According to the official census, in 2003 there were 25 to 28 tigersand in the 2004 census, 18 tigers were reported. In 2005, all were missing. Nobody knows what happened to the tigers. Perhaps those who knew just kept quiet.

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Sariska lies between two major cities — New Delhi and Jaipur — with two State highways running through it. Nearly 50 villages lie within its limits and around 40,000 people live in those hamlets.

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"An international racket behind this. The marble quarry lobby, backed by political tycoons, also does not want tigers there. The forest department is ill-equipped. Then how can the tigers survive?" asks E. Kunhikrishnan, zoologist and environmental activist.

After the Sariska story broke out, the government machinery suddenly recognised the existence of the poacher route that extends from New Delhi to Nepal, Lhasa (Tibet) and China.

"First it must be recognised by everyone that there is no substitute for good protection. An organised, well-connected mafia is involved in poaching. Punishment must be severe and swift," points out Dattatri.

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"Tigers aren't safe anywhere in India. Three years ago, a gang of tiger poachers from a village near Katni, Madhya Pradesh were caught red-handed at Nagarahole, the premier game sanctuary in Karnataka. This came to light only because a tourist happened to film a tiger limping with a jaw trap attached to its foot," says Dattatri.

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Poisoning the kill, trapping and shooting are the most common methods used to kill the big cats.

More at: The Hindu: Spot the tiger

Living With Predators is a series of posts on this blog, covering a myriad of situations in which humans and dangerous animals live together, and how they cope. You can read more in this series, so far we've got:

Living With Predators - Crocs
Living With Predators - Hippos

You can also read more about the The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans on my earlier post.

Posted by sorsha at October 19, 2005 1:36 PM