Abstract
An increasing number of tigers are leaving natural mangrove habitats and straying into the surrounding villages in the Indian Sundarban. This creates a serious hazard for humans, livestock and tigers. Household surveys in villages adjacent to the mangroves found 237 incidents of tigers straying during 1995–2010. An average of 14 tigers strays into villages per year. Consequences of tigers straying include, villagers killed (N = 7) or injured (N = 73), tiger predation on livestock (N = 242), and villagers killing tigers (N = 12). Most (68 %) of tigers leaving the mangroves were male. Of female tigers, most (65 %) had litters and were accompanied by their cubs. Confusing riverside plantations with jungles or confusing paddy fields with wild grasses (31.12 % combined) and predation of domestic livestock (26.96 %) are two main reasons for tigers straying. Tigers may also prefer domestic livestock over wild boar and deer as hunting livestock is easier than hunting natural prey in mangroves. Benefit, cost ratios for human–tiger conflicts were calculated at 0.81–0.92: 1. Appropriate compensation and a strategy of prey population increase might provide solutions to existing problems.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andheria, A.P., K.U. Karanth, and N.S. Kumar. 2007. Diet and prey profiles of three sympatric large carnivores in Bandipur Tiger Reserve, India. Journal of Zoology 263: 169–175.
Bagchi, S., and C. Mishra. 2006. Living with large carnivores, predation on livestock by the snow leopard (Uncia uncia). Journal of Zoology 268: 217–224.
Chakraborty, K. 1984. An eco-biometrical study on tiger in the estuarine ecosystem of Sundarban. Indian Forester 110(6): 540–549.
Chaudhuri, A.B., and A. Chaudhury. 1974. Wildlife biology of Sundarban forests. Science and Culture 40(3): 93–99.
Chaudhuri, A.B., and A. Choudhury. 1994. Mangroves of the Sundarbans, India. Bangkok: IUCN.
Chowdhury, A.N., R. Mondal, A. Brahma, and M.K. Biswas. 2008. Eco-psychiatry and Environmental Conservation, Study from Sundarban Delta, India. Environmental Health Insights 2: 61–76.
Cozza, K., R. Fico, M.L. Battistini, and E. Rogers. 1996. The damage conservation interface illustrated by predation on domestic livestock in central Italy. Biological Conservation 78: 329–336.
Das, C.S. 2005. Tiger straying hazards in Sundarban, West Bengal. Geographical Review of India 67(1): 80–87.
Das, C.S. 2011. Characterization and prevention of large carnivore-human conflict in Sundarban, a study of tiger straying incidents. In Sundarbans: Issues & threats, ed. K. Naskar, and A. Bhattacharya, 16–27. Kolkata: Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR).
Das, C.S. 2012. Tiger straying incidents in Indian Sundarban, statistical analysis of case studies as well as depredation caused by conflict. European Journal of Wildlife Research 58(1): 205–214.
Das, C.S., and S. Bandyopadhyay. 2012. Sharing space, human-animal conflicts in Indian Sundarban, 246. Kolkata: Progressive Publishers.
Das, K.T., and I. Guha. 2003. Economics of man-animal conflict: A lesson for wildlife conservation, 103. Kolkata: ACB publications.
Gillingham, S., and P.C. Lee. 2003. People & protected Areas, a study of local perception of wildlife crop damage conflict in an area bordering the Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania. Oryx 37(3): 316–321.
Goodrich, J.M. 2010. Human–tiger conflict: A review and call for comprehensive plans. Integrative Zoology 5: 300–312.
Gurung, B., J.L.D. Smith, C. Mcdougal, J.B. Karki, and A. Barlow. 2008. Factors associated with human-killing tigers in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Biological Conservation 141: 3069–3078.
Inskip, C., and A. Zimmermann. 2009. Human-field conflict: a review of patterns and priorities worldwide. Oryx 43: 18–21.
Johnson, A., C. Vongkhamheng, M. Hedemark, and T. Saithongdam. 2006. Effects of human–carnivore conflict on tiger (Panthera tigris) and prey populations in Lao PDR. Animal Conservation 9: 421–430.
Kaczensky, P. 1996. Livestock–carnivore conflicts in Europe, 106. Munich: Munich Wildlife Society.
Kanjilal, T. 2000. Who killed the Sundarban, 24–27. Kolkata: Tagore Society for Rural Development.
Karanth, K.U. 2003. Tiger ecology and conservation on the Indian Subcontinent. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 100: 169–189.
Karanth, K.U., and B.M. Stith. 1999. Prey depletion as a critical determinant of tiger population viability. In Tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes, ed. J. Seidensticker, S. Christie, and P. Jackson, 100–113. Cambridge: Riding the Tiger, Cambridge University Press.
Khan, M.M.H. 2002. The Sundarbans. In Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places, ed. P.R. Gil, 280–289. Mexico City: CEMEX: Conservation International & Sierra Madre.
Madhusudan, M.D. 2003. Living amidst large wildlife, livestock and crop depredation by large mammals in the interior villages of Bhadra Tiger Reserve, South India. Environmental Management 3: 466–475.
Madhusudan, M.D., and K.U. Karanth. 2002. Local hunting and the conservation of large mammals in India. AMBIO 3: 49–54.
Mandal, R.N., C.S. Das, and K.R. Naskar. 2010. Dwindling Indian Sundarban Mangroves: The way out. Science and Culture 76(7–8): 275–282.
Matarasso, M. 2004. Targeting behaviour, developing conservation education, communications and advocacy programmes with the participation of local communities, 36–62. Hanoi: WWF Indochina Programme.
Mazzoli, M., M.E. Graipel, and N. Dunstone. 2002. Mountain lion depredation in southern Brazil. Biological Conservation 105: 43–51.
Mech, L.D. 1981. The wolf: The ecology and behaviour of an endangered species, 389. New York: Doubleday.
Miquelle, D.G., E.N. Smirnov, H.B. Quigley, M.G. Hornocker, I.G. Nikolaev, and E.N. Matyushkin. 1996. Food habits of Amur tigers in Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik and the Russian Far East, and implications for conservation. Journal of Wildlife Research 1: 138–147.
Miquelle, D., I. Nikolaev, J. Goodrich, B. Litvinov, E. Smirnov, and E. Suvorov. 2005. Searching for the coexistence recipe: A case study of conflicts between people and tigers in the Russian Far East. In People and wildlife: Conflict or coexistence?, ed. R. Woodroffe, S. Thirgood, and A. Rabinowitz, 305–322. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mishra, C., P. Allen, T. Mccarthy, M.D. Madhusudan, A. Bayarjargal, and H.H.T. Prins. 2003. The role of incentive programs in conserving the snow leopard. Conservation Biology 17: 1512–1520.
Mukherjee, S. 2003. Tiger human conflicts in Sundarban Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India. Tigerpaper 30: 6–8.
Nath, L. 2000. Conservation and management of the tiger: Panthera tigris tigris, in Bandhavgarh National Park, India. Oxford: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford.
Newmark, W.D., D.N. Manyanza, G.M. Gamassa, and H.I. Sariko. 1994. The conflict between wildlife and local people living adjacent to protected areas in Tanzania, human density as a predictor. Conservation Biology 8: 249–255.
Nugraha, R.T., and J. Sugardjito. 2009. Assessment and management options of human–tiger conflicts in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. Mammal Study 34: 141–154.
Oli, M.K. 1994. The ecology and conservation of the Snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal. Master of Philosophy, Thesis. University of Edinburgh. www.forestrynepal.org/images/thesis/MS_thesis_09_Human-Tiger_conflict.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2012.
Pargiter, F.E. 1934. A revenue history of the Sundarbans from 1765 to 1870, 156. Calcutta: Bengal Govt. Press.
Parry, D., and B. Campbell. 1992. Attitudes of rural communities to animal wildlife and its utilization in Chobe Enclave and Mabade Depression, Botswana. Environmental Conservation 19: 245–252.
Pedersen, V., J.D.C. Linnell, R. Andersen, H. Andren, M. Linde′N, and M.P. Segerstro. 1999. Winter Lynx Lynx lynx predation on semidomestic reindeer Rangifer tarandus in northern Sweden. Wildlife Biology 5(4): 203–211.
Reza, A.H.M.A., M.M. Feroze, and M.A. Islam. 2002. Prey species density of Bengal tiger in the Sundarbans. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Science 28(1): 35–42.
Sangay, T., and K. Vernes. 2008. Human–wildlife conflict in the Kingdom of Bhutan: Patterns of livestock depredation by large mammalian carnivores. Biological Conservation 141: 1272–1282.
Sanyal, P. 1999. Man-eating tigers of Sundarban. In Sundarban mangals, ed. D.N. Guha Bakshi, P. Sanyal, and K.R. Naskar, 444–454. Calcutta: Naya Prokash.
Sanyal, P. 2009. Effect of global warming on Sundarban, In Confluence, 149–158. Calcutta: UGC Academic Staff College: University of Calcutta.
Sillero-Zubiri, C., R. Sukumar, and A. Treves. 2007. Living with wildlife: The roots of conflict and the solutions. In Key topics in conservation biology, ed. D. MacDonald, and K. Service, 266–272. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stoen, O.G., and P. Wegge. 1996. Prey selection and prey removal by tiger (Panthera tigris) during the dry season in lowland Nepal. Mammalia 60: 363–373.
Sunquist, M.E. 1981. Social organization of tigers in Roya Chitawan National Park, Nepal. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 336. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 98.
Vyas, P. 2004. Tiger straying in the Sunderbans; Mystery & Management. Environmental 9(1): 43–46.
Wang, S.W., and D.W. Macdonald. 2006. Livestock predation by carnivores in Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park, Bhutan. Biological Conservation 129: 558–565.
Wikramanayake, E.D., E. Dinerstein, G. Robinson, K.U. Karanth, A.R. Rabinowitz, D. Olson, T. Matthew, P. Hedao, M. Connor, G. Hemley, and D. Bolze. 1999. Where can tigers live in the future? A framework for identifying high-priority areas for the conservation of tigers in the wild. In Riding the tiger, tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes, ed. J. Seidensticker, S. Christie, and P. Jackson, 255–272. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to University Grants Commission (UGC), Govt. of India for providing grants for carrying out field work in Sundarban. Thanks are also due to Professor Sunando Bandyopadhyay, Department of geography, University of Calcutta and Carl D. Mitchell, retired wildlife biologist, USA for their continuous inspirations and valuable suggestions for improving the paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Das, C.S. Causes, Consequences and Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Conflicts Caused by Tiger Straying Incidents in Sundarban, India. Proc Zool Soc 68, 120–130 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-014-0105-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-014-0105-8