Tigers, humans forced to share India forest

[Guest guest]

A rescued tigress crosses the River Sundarikati

on Feb. 19 after being released by

wildlife workers at India's Sundarbans mangrove

forest. The pregnant tigress, which strayed

nearly 20 miles from deep inside the forest, was

caught before it could enter a nearby village.

 

 

Tigers, humans forced to share India forest

Animals have little other habitat, people are too poor to move elsewhere

By Sam Dolnick

The Associated Press

updated 3:51 p.m. PT, Fri., Sept. 19, 2008

JHARKHALI, India - The fishermen were hauling in

the first net of the morning when the tiger

pounced.

 

Kumaresh Mondal managed to run a few steps before

the 450-pound beast knocked him down with a leap,

tore into his throat, and dragged his limp body

into the dense mangrove forest.

 

" I tried to chase the tiger, but I couldn't find

any path, " said Monoranjan Mondal, another of the

four men fishing that day in March. " There were

no tracks, no broken branches... He just took him

away. "

 

The Sundarbans, a tangle of unforgiving islands

at the mouth of the Ganges River, are home to

perhaps the world's largest population of wild

tigers - as well as millions of the poorest

people in India and Bangladesh. Despite decades

of attempts to keep the tigers at bay, they still

kill about two dozen people every year.

 

Now, experts fear environmental changes and

shrinking land could lead to more tiger-human

conflicts, with disastrous results for both.

Villagers who can no longer grow enough crops are

venturing into the tigers' domain in search of

fish, crabs and honey to sell. And tigers are

creeping ever closer to villagers in search of

fresh water and food, according to scientists who

track their movement.

 

" There should be no people living here, " said

Pranabes Sanyal, former field director of the

Sundarbans Tiger Reserve. " It's too dangerous. "

 

In the Sundarbans, whose 3,700-square-mile

mangrove forest is the world's largest, families

scrape by as stubborn rice farmers, overmatched

fishermen and barefoot honey collectors. Nearly

everyone has a friend or a relative who was

attacked by a tiger. There are believed to be

close to 250 tigers on the Indian side of the

Sundarbans, and another 250 on the Bangladesh

side.

 

No choice but to venture out

The predator's long shadow looms large over

village life. Tigers are fixtures in folk songs

and mud-roofed shrines, real-life monsters who

steal away those who test them.

 

Madhusudan Mondal saw a tiger kill his father and

two other men while they were looking for honey

in the forest six years ago. Still, he enters the

woods every spring to collect honey, which can

earn him thousands of rupees, compared to the 70

rupees ($1.75) a day he makes working the fields.

 

" I have to go, " shrugged Mondal, a father of seven. " I have to make a living. "

 

Honey collectors like Mondal - a common name in

the area - walk barefoot into the knotted woods,

armed only with a thick branch and a mask worn on

the back of the head in hopes of scaring away

tigers that folklore says always attack from

behind.

 

To ward off tigers, villagers beat drums and

shine floodlights at night. Electrified dummies

shock animals that get too close. And recently,

officials built a massive nylon fence around the

tiger reserve, an ambitious solution that needs

constant upkeep.

 

Most people feel their best defense is the

blessing of Bon Bibi, the forest goddess, who

controls the tigers, snakes, sharks and

crocodiles that roam her kingdom. Before

venturing into the fickle woods, which are

reshaped constantly by the tides and shifting

sands, they visit her shrine and ask for her

protection.

 

But the bright-eyed goddess' job is getting harder.

 

Rising sea levels, erosion and increasingly

brackish waters have ruined once-dependable

crops, forcing farmers into the forest to forage.

Scientists say global warming has contributed to

the Bay of Bengal rising more than three

millimeters a year, causing more floods. One of

the largest islands is predicted to shrink by 15

percent by 2020.

 

As India booms, its many irrigation and

hydropower projects have also reduced the flow of

the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers which feed the

Sundarbans. That means less fresh water in the

tidal basin.

 

The changes have made watermelons, once an

attractive crop, impossible to grow. Rice

paddies, the backbone of both the village diet

and its economy, are producing less. Harvest

season comes earlier every year.

 

The tigers are suffering from the changes, too.

Once more commonly spotted in the south, where no

humans live, they have been increasingly seen in

northern woods, closer to the inhabited islands.

 

" It's certainly become more inhospitable than it

used to be, " said Anurag Danda, senior program

coordinator of WWF India Sundarbans. " Of course

people are scared, but that sense of fear has

always been there. "

 

Despite the fear, the villagers also prize the

tigers because they know the beasts are all

that's keeping the crowded outside world from

encroaching on their homes.

 

" Without the tiger, " said Bish Tarafdar, a

fisherman who was mauled last year, " there would

be no jungle. "

 

He's almost certainly right. As India

industrializes, it is facing serious

deforestation problems elsewhere.

 

But it's also true that without the tiger,

Tarafdar's uncle would still be alive. A tiger

killed the fisherman 30 years ago, and his widow

still dresses all in white, the color of mourning.

" The tiger is an enemy, " said Dulali Tarafdar,

his widow. " If I could, I would curse the tiger.

I would tell him, 'You have ruined me.' "

 

Place of last resort for both

As hard as life is, the villagers can't leave the

Sundarbans because they have nowhere else to go.

Many are descended from families that came here

generations ago as landless migrants from

Bangladesh or rural east India. This menacing

forest was the last frontier, and their last

chance.

 

The Sundarbans may be where the tiger also makes

its last stand. There are only 1,500 left in

India's reserves and jungles - down from about

3,600 six years ago and an estimated 100,000 a

century ago. The tigers have adapted to the harsh

environment by learning to eat fish and crabs,

swim against powerful currents, and drink salty

water - though the water is becoming too brackish

even for them, scientists say.

 

Monoranjan Mondal hasn't returned to the forest

since that March day when a tiger killed his

friend. But money is running out, and the forest

is calling.

 

" I am very scared, " Mondal said. " But I have to go back. "

 

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