Tiger kills man in tourist hotspot

JAIPUR: Tourist haven Ranthambore woke up to a grisly morning on Monday: a tiger had killed a man on the forest’s periphery. The tiger had gone for the man’s throat and shoulders.

So, is there a man-eater at large in Ranthambore which sees a steady stream of visitors, including VVIPs like Priyanka Gandhi and Sheila Dixit? Forest officials were quick to deny this, arguing that this was an accident.

“There are canine marks on the shoulder and throat of the man. Though the buttocks of the man appear to be eaten, we are ruling out that this was done by the tiger. He must have been eaten later by jackals which also roam in the area,” an official of the state forest department said.

But the rare occurrence has left forest officials worried. The last time a tiger killed a man in the state was in the early 1990s. This happened in Sariska, when a big cat mauled a sadhu.

This time, the tiger killed a 50-year-old villager Badri Kumar on Sunday morning. The body was recovered on Monday morning when his relatives began searching for him after he did not return home Sunday night.

A resident of Edna-Shayampura village on the periphery of the national park, Badri had gone looking for wood with his donkey near Darrah, on the edge of the forest. The donkey, too, was killed. The man’s body has been sent for post-mortem.
“The reason why we are ruling out that the buttocks of the person was eaten by the tiger is because if it had begun eating him, it would obviously have eaten a lot more,” the official added. They are now trying to identify the tiger from the pug marks.

“We have recovered a partially chopped tree in the forest area. It appears that after hacking the tree he was loading the wood on the donkey when the tiger attacked,” an official said.

At this Badri must have either raised an alarm or tried to pelt stones at the tiger. “Irritated by this, the tiger retaliated and attacked him,” the official added.

The body of Badri was recovered about 100 metres away from the body of the donkey. The donkey had been partially eaten by the tiger.

“Since no one was a witness to the incident most of what we are drawing up are inferences after visiting the area. Had the person run away he would not have been attacked by the tiger. We think it was a male tiger for the males are aggressive and attack when pelted with stones,” the official said.

But doesn’t a tiger which tastes human blood turn man-eater? Officials, however, ruled this out. “This killing was purely accidental. In the case of a man-eater, the tiger specially hunts human beings and kills them for food. But here the tiger did not damage the man’s body,” the official said.

Link - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/h...ow/5713952.cms

A similar incidence was reported at Bandipur few days back. Both cases show that humans entering forest area for collecting wood.

BANDIPUR/BANGALORE: For the last two days, the villagers of Beremabadi near the Bandipur National Park have been living under a shadow of fear — after fifty-year old Hanumantha Nayaka was killed by a tiger on Saturday, the villagers are afraid that a man eater may be on the prowl.

The remains of Hanumantha Nayaka’s half-eaten body was recovered from a 20-feet deep gorge in Gopalaswamy betta range by villagers and forest officials — all that the big cat had left behind was the victim’s head, left hand and a leg.

Since the incident, the villagers have stopped venturing into the forestwhich they did daily to collect firewood.

Forest officials think that Hanumantha Nayaka was attacked by the tiger, when he ran into the animal unexpectedly.

“It must have been a head on collision, otherwise, it is highly unlikely that the tiger could have attacked him,” said, Hanumanthappa, Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF).

“I just pray that the tiger doesn’t turn into a man eater or else there will be pressure on us to capture it,” said B K Singh, Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife).

However, forest officials say that it is too early to call it a man-eater.

“It is necessary to differentiate between man-killing and man-eating.

There are several circumstances under which human beings are attacked accidentally by tigers and panthers and may as a result die, but these cases are to be considered only as accidental killings,” Hanumanthappa said.

“The mere fact that the dead body has been eaten does not prove that the animal is a man-eater. Similarly, the fact that a particular animal has killed more than one human being also does not prove it to be a man-eater,” Hanumanthappa explained. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, has a set of guidelines to identify a man-eater.According to the guide lines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, it only if a tiger/panther begins to seek out, stalk and wait for human beings and after killing the person, eats the dead body, that the animal can be termed a maneater.

It is only after a tiger kills 5 people that the beast can said to be a man-eater.

Villagers however, fear that the tiger may indeed be a maneater and suspect that a forest guard who went missing two years ago might have been a prey of the same animal.

For the villagers not entering the forest area may not be an option, even with the potential man-eater on the prowl. “The government’s failure to give domestic gas cylinders to all the families living near the edge of the forest has forced them to depend on fire wood. How can the forest department expect us not to enter forest for wood when only 20 per cent of the 2,000 families are provided with gas connections,” asked Bangara Nayaka, another villager.

While the villagers are demanding compensation for Hanumantha Nayaka’s family, forest officials say that since he had entered the forest illegally, there is no scope for compensation.

“However, we have given his family an amount of Rs 5,000 on humanitarian grounds since they were killed inside forest. His 17- year old son has been offered a job by our department,” Hanumanthappa said.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/s...2TGM5XQ==&SEO=

Both the incidences are very unfortunate.

Hope both the incidences were mere accident.

In the past tigers have borne the blame and eventually killed for well planned murders.

Bandipur incident is quite perplexed for the area is packed with prey of ungulates and there seems to be no need for the tiger to seek man - thier dreaded foe.

Let us wait to hear further details on this.

Thanks for sharing.

one killing doesn't make a tiger maneater. There is always a fight to flight distance for animals. If a person unexpectedly bumps into a sleeping tiger, then the tiger may maul the victim and run away. At times the person dies, and the body remains at that spot without being unnoticed. When the tiger visits the area it can eat a small portion of the body. The prime reason for eating a small portion is not for food. They will eat a portion of the body of the vanquished to reiterate their supremacy. That is how the animal world is.

A few killings doesn't mean that the tiger will always feed on human beings. We humans have a tendency to think that everything about us is good and hence feel that our flesh is more tasty than wild animals. Nothing is farther from the truth.

When one checks the past records of maneaters, one can know that even a maneater doesn't survive purely on human flesh.

One should also not rule out murder. If a person is murdered and thrown in a gorge, the body can always be eaten by a carnivore.

However unfortunate this incident may be, if this results in less of people entering the forests, then it would be good. Though is also important to wean away people from using forest produce, I won't immediately blame the Government if all of them haven't got gas connections. What about solar cookers and heaters?

Cheers,
Sabyasachi