The last four or five months have witnessed unpredictable human-tiger conflicts in Karnataka. It started on 26 June, when a tigress and its four cubs were poisoned near Meenyam village inside forests of the MM Hills Sanctuary, followed by the death of two tiger cubs in the adjoining Hanur forests on 12 August and poisoning of a male tiger again in MM Hills Sanctuary o n 3 October. The June 2 6 poisoning exposed the weaknesses in management leading to the state government suspending the Deputy Conservator of Forests and others and ordering an enquiry.
An enquiry conducted in fast-track mode revealed that the wages of anti-poaching camp watchers, who are contract employees, had remained unpaid since January 2025. This hampered patrolling in the forests. Further, camera trap data showed that the tigress and cubs were moving around, yet forest department officers did not engage with the communities and there was red-tape involved in paying the compensation for the wildlife damage to crops and loss of domestic livestock. The accused person was from Meenyam village, who admitted to poisoning the carcass of cattle after the tigress had killed it, dragged it into a thick patch of vegetation, and ate some portion along with its cubs. Often tigers revisit the carcass after three days to eat the remaining meat.
This behaviour is known to everyone and the accused person took advantage of this. Villagers also revealed to the investigating team that the tigress had preyed on another cattle of the accused person fifteen days earlier and he did not apply for compensation because of red-tape. It is a clear case of a lack of trust between forest personnel and communities. The enquiry also revealed that the sanctuary area had several unauthorized cattle camps using its fodder, fruits and water resources and depriving wild herbivores from this – an indication of the fact that forest personnel have not perambulated the jungle. Bandipur and Nagarhole in Karnataka, Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad in Kerala are continuous patches of forests extending over 3,000 square km area and are part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. All these are notified Tiger Reserve s and hold the maximum number tigers (approximately 12 tigers per 100 square km) in the wild.
Except Bandipur, the other three Reserves have human settlements inside, yet the landscape is the best place for tigers anywhere in the world. Bandipur has several human settlements on its northern edge. National highways and district roads criss-cross the landscape and there is always pressure to widen these roads and revoke the night traffic ban imposed on some. The undergrowth in the forests is competing with the invasive species namely Senna spectabilis and Lantana camera, and has depleted the availability of fodder for ungulates. This, in turn, has pushed ungulates towards the farmlands on the edge of the Reserve. The tigers too get pushed towards the edges.
There have been four incidents of tigers mauling humans in the last one month in Hediyala sub-division of Bandipur, injuring a person in one case and killing one person each in the remaining three cases. Here again, the Bandipur management has failed to engage with the communities around Hediyala. The surge in invasive species in these reserves has the potential to degrade the habitat considerably, increase the conflicts on the edges and take a toll on tigers. The four incidents referred here were on 13, 16 and 27 October and 7 November. And every time the Forest department faced heat from the public, tigers have been captured. It is possible that the tiger other than the one responsible for the mauling has been captured.
In all, two tigers and seven cubs have been brought to captivity. After the last incident on 7 November, the Karnataka government, in a knee-jerk reaction, suspended safari vehicles in tourism areas of Bandipur and Nagarhole Tiger Reserves. Invasive species-infested forests are also prone to burning and wildfires which causes further degradation of habitats. The best home for tigers is under a severe threat of degradation, pushing the tigers out of the reserves, where conflict with humans rise and tigers meet their Waterloo. After the Government of India took some drastic steps to revive tigers in different landscapes a c ro country, the first methodological estimation in 2007 revealed that their numbers have dwindled to 1411. It was found that tigers have vanished from Sariska (Rajasthan), Panna (Madhya Pradesh) and Buxa (West Bengal).
Poaching syndicates were active in these reserves and had hunted down tigers for skin and body parts . The Union and state governments along with Wildlife Institute of India took up reintroduction of tigers in these reserves. Reintroduction in Sariska and Panna succeeded, while in Buxa it did no t owing to its proximity to human areas. Scientific studies reveal that tigers can survive in inviolate areas of 800 to 1200 square km, with sufficient prey population, provided there are no human settlements and livestock in it. Both Sariska and Buxa extended under 350 square km of forests, while Panna covered more than 900 square km. The reintroduction of tigers was successful in Panna, where the number revived from zero in 2009 to more than 100 in 2025, including 22 breeding females.
The credit for such recovery goes to Srinivas Murthy, who worked as Field Director for over six years from June 2009. He could boost the morale of his more than 700 men, connect with the communities, develop in-house skills in tranquilizing, radio-collaring, and radio telemetry – based monitoring , and corporate research inventions in managerial tools. The Intelligence and legal cell created by him paid dividends. Murthy had zero tolerance for poaching and even punished his staff when found shirking their responsibility. Today, Panna faces a threat from the Ken Betwa linking project and diamond mining in Chhatapur district. The best forests in this country are tiger Reserves and unless we conserve them, the ecological services like food, water and air we receive are likely to be threatened.
(The writer is Retired Head of Forest Force, Karnataka.)