Ranthambore tigers turning aggressive: Report
Jaipur: The behaviour of tigers at the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR) in Sawai Madhopur is turning aggressive due to their increasing population and spurt in tourism, according to a report by the reserve administration.
The reserve has witnessed close to a dozen incidents of tiger-human conflict in the last two years, in which four people lost their lives.
Recommending measures to strengthen wildlife management and curb tiger-human conflict, Ranthambore administration has submitted a report highlighting the reason for such incidents and suspected changes in the behaviour of big cats. HT has seen a copy of the report.
“We have received the report and it is being looked into,” chief wildlife warden Arindam Tomar said.
According to the report, incidents of wildlife-human conflict, especially tiger-human conflict, have been increasing at RTR and villages on the borders of Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district .
Just about a year ago, tigers were present in forests and bordering areas. They used to move towards forests, sighting humans on the same path. The tiger-human conflict and incidents of deadly attacks were negligible. The last one year has seen a radical change in their behaviour. According to the report, their aggressiveness is resulting in the loss of life and property.
The report has attributed the reason for such a radical change to the increase in the number of tigers in the reserve, a spurt in tourism spurt, damaged or low height of security walls and excessive number of tourism vehicles running above their carrying capacity.
The tiger population at the reserve has increased to 62, including 27 males, 25 females and 10 cubs. The number is more than the carrying capacity of the reserve, because of which the bordering areas witness tiger-human conflict, according to the report. There is also suspicion that such incidents might increase after 10 cubs age. In such a situation, there is an immediate need for relocating 10 tigers from the RTR.
To date, one tiger has been shifted to Udaipur, one to Sariska and another to Mukundra. Earlier, six tigers had been relocated to Sariska. It would be difficult to curb incidents of tiger-human conflict in future, if the tigers aren’t relocated, according to the report.
Wildlife Institute of India scientist YV Jhala said, “Familiarity is a major cause for attacks; if animals aren’t afraid, man-animal conflicts will increase.”
“It’s not about tourism but management. At Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, practices are done to ensure that the animal is afraid of humans. Even abroad, rubber bullets are used on bears to create fear or distance. We need to ensure that the fear of human is there in the animal,” he added
”Overpopulation cannot be a reason as the tigers find their way out; in the case of RTR, they can move towards Keoladeo or Kuno national park,” he said.
