Ranthambore Tiger attack: Man had sneaked into forbidden area Read more: Tiger attack: Man had sneaked into forbidden area

JAIPUR: Two incidents of man hunt within a period of 45 days and the myth of the camera happy tigers of Ranthambore lies shattered. And if the shivers come back for tourists as they spot a tiger out on a safari at the national park blame not the tiger. For, they definitely have not turned into man eaters yet.

Forest officials, though apologetic, revealed that in both the incidents at Jhoomar Bawdi and at the Indala Dang, villagers had sneaked well inside the forbidden terrain.

"In the latest case of the death of Hemraj Gujjar, the youth had gone two kilometres inside the forest. We have found a sickle, a sackful of grass and some more bundles of grass. It is a dense forest in that area and is home to about seven young tigers," said RN Mehrotra, principal chief conservator of forests and head of forest forces, Rajasthan.

"What happens during monsoon is that all these areas get covered with dense vegetation. The youth must have unknowingly moved in close to where the tiger was resting. It is only then that the tiger mistaking the man, on is his fours, as an animal attacked him," he added.

Not different was the opinion of Rajpal Singh, member, State Wildlife Board. "The village in Indala was relocated from Ranthambore last year. Every member of the village had taken the money that was handed to them as compensation and gone way. Even the village of Gopalpura, that lies on the outskirts of Ranthambore was relocated from the forest way back in 1976," he says.

"But these villagers have traditionally been sneaking into the forest for wood and grass illegally. And it is in this context that the man animal-conflicts have come," Singh said.

"Moreover, the Indala area is now populated with several young tigers and the probability is that these tigers are under stress. For being young, they can't occupy the core area of the forest which houses more matured and stronger male tigers, therefore leaving these young ones to fend for a territory somewhere along the periphery of the forest. And it is these areas where the villagers come for grass and wood and fall prey to the animals," he added.

In fact, the forest department waking up to the rising attacks have now formulated a two-pronged strategy. According to R S Shekhawat, director of the national park, "We have decided to improve the habitat along the periphery of the forest. Once that happens the villagers will get their grass and wood along the border of the forest and would not sneak deep into it."

"But more importantly we have now decided to raise the height of the wall that we are building along the periphery of the forest from 4 feet to 6 feet. In fact the work of building the wall near Gopalpura is nearly over but these villagers always manage to sneak in through opening in the wall that are left for streams," he said.

Currently, forest officials say, there are no villages inside Ranthambore. "All the villages have been relocated. But there are some left on the periphery and we are in the process of shifting them out too," Shekhawat added.


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