Not every tiger is a man-eater – not even close. In many places, traditional tolerance is beginning to fray, leading to riots and targeted killing of tigers. But while getting killed by an elephant is typically viewed as something that just “happens”, like a car accident, deaths caused by tigers tap into a primordial fear that, if left unresolved, can drive communities to extremes. Livestock are killed and sometimes so are people.Īttacks are relatively rare, with around 40 to 50 people annually killed by tigers – compared to around 350 people killed each year by elephants.
India’s protected areas have not expanded at the same rate as its tiger population, forcing some big cats to turn to human-dominated landscapes for survival. Success does not come without cost, however. The country holds just 25% of total tiger habitat, but accounts for 70% of all remaining wild tigers, or around 3,000 animals today. The live-and-let-live outlook has also been foundational for India’s transformation into the world’s greatest stronghold for tigers. Her husband’s death, she says, has nothing to do with the fact that the government is trying to save tigers: “This was my fate.”
Nor is she worried that India’s tiger population is on the rise.
Like many Hindus in India, she views humans as one piece of a complex web of life composed of all creatures, each with an equal right to existence. I feel insecure and dependent.”ĭespite all this, Gopamma feels no resentment toward the tiger that killed her husband. “My older son could have studied, but now both of my sons have to work. “My life was much better when my husband was alive,” she says. Her son had to drop out of university and move back home to support her. In the wake of her husband’s death, Gopamma struggled not only with grief but economic hardship. The tiger that killed him was still sitting next to the body. Just a few metres inside the forest, the group discovered Hanumantha’s half-eaten remains. Gopamma sent for her son, who gathered a search party and headed to Bandipur Tiger Reserve, a nearby national park in south-western India. Her husband, Hanumantha, should have returned from collecting firewood an hour before. By 11:00, Gopamma Nayaka knew something was wrong.
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