Attacks on human habitations, cattle and domestic animals by tigers of the Sunderbans have seen unprecedented rise since the past few months owing to drastic reduction of forest areas and dwindling numbers of prey for the great cats.
Royal Bengal tigers are often seen invading the villages across the river in both North and South 24 Parganas districts while the residents of Samshernagar village under Hingalganj police station in the North as well as Jemspur and Anpur villages of the South reported attacks of the Royal Bengal tigers, which killed several cattle, including cows, goats and sheep after entering the cattle sheds of a number of houses.
A tiger entered Samshernagar village during two successive nights and killed as many as ten cattle from four cattle sheds on May 22 night. Another tiger entered the village on May 21 night crossing Kundekhali canal of the Jhingakhali range of the Sunderbans and killed four goats, of which one was taken away by the tiger to the forest, locals said.
Incidentally, beat officers of the forest department were in a dilemma in finding a way out to prevent tigers from entering the inhabited areas. They suggested the local Panchayat and the villagers to erect strong fencing. The beat officials also suggested to arrange for night guards in this case.
On the other hand, Jemspur village of South 24 Parganas saw a full grown Royal Bengal tiger killing at least four cattle, including a dog, after entering a cattle shed of a villager during late evening.
As the villagers chased the tiger, it fled from Jemspur to Anpur village, where it also killed a few cattle. The forest officials were also called for help by the villagers. Finally the beast was caught yesterday morning. It was later sedated and brought to the Anpur beat house from where it will be released in the forest after fixing a radio collar as was done for a couple of tigers, which were caught from Chhotomollkhali and Netidhopani villages in South district.
Forest department officials have blamed the man-animal conflict to the degradation of the ecosystem following dwindling of the Sunderban forest area, which was posing a danger to the endangered animals' survival as the number of their prey had reduced considerably.
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