India: It’s easier to move people than tigers

Editorial

The Hindu

It’s always distressing when someone gets eaten by a tiger, said The Hindu. Villagers in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, on the edge of Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, are understandably upset after a 60-year-old farmer was killed and partially eaten last week by a tigress and her cubs. They want a fence built, or the tigers hunted and killed, or both.

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But let’s not overreact. It is important to remember “that man-eating is not a widespread phenomenon.” In fact, there are very few tigers left in India. For so many years, far too many were killed as nuisances or for trophies, and their forest habitat has been fragmented to the point that few areas are large enough to support the wide-ranging predators. Perhaps 1,500 survive today in all of India, and most of them are desperate to avoid encounters with humans.

In fact, scientists say the best response to a tiger attack on humans is not to go after the animal, but to move the people. Relocating these remote villagers would be more effective than anything else in preventing further attacks, and much cheaper than building a fence—even after paying “handsome compensatory packages” to those asked to leave their homes. Staying as far away as possible from one another will benefit both humans and tigers.