Tiger Death Highlights Strained Human-Wildlife Interactions In Assam

An adult tiger was lynched in Assam on May 22, drawing attention to the increasing movement of wildlife outside the boundaries of the Kaziranga National Park. It also raised questions about conflict management in tiger reserves.

The incident took place in the Dusotimukh gram panchayat of Golaghat district, about 20 km from the Agoratoli or Eastern range of the state’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP), which became a tiger reserve in 2015.

“We received information about the incident at around 8 a.m. after which we reached the spot,” Gunadeep Das, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Golaghat division, told Mongabay India. “We found a few thousand people gathered there, armed with machetes, sticks, spears, and other weapons. The tiger had already died, and its body parts like nails, claws, and tail were cut off,” adding that they are investigating if the body parts were cut off for trade. “We sent the body for post-mortem and later buried it.”

Das added that two people from the Dusotimukh area were arrested based on evidence and produced in court.

The residents, meanwhile, have blamed inaction of the forest department, as they claim the tiger had been active in the Dusotimukh area since the last few months and was a threat to the people.

Pranab Doley, President of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Committee, said the tiger had killed a man in Dusotimukh this year, and since then, it has killed cattle, horses, and pigs. “The villagers here informed both the Golaghat division and the Kaziranga authorities about the presence of the tiger,” he told Mongabay India. “If they had taken timely action, this unfortunate incident could have been averted.”

Golaghat DFO Das said that he had assumed charge in the division just two days before the lynching incident and was not well-informed of the issues in the area.

Doley, who is also a local resident of Kaziranga, said he has observed that the movement of animals like tigers and rhinos from KNP has increased in recent years. “The main corridor for animals in Kaziranga is Karbi Hills, which has been blocked by the hospitality industry and other infrastructure projects. The increasing tourism is disturbing tigers and other wild animals,” he said. “Over 70% of the grasslands in Kaziranga have degraded. We believe the forest department is trying to take over our grazing grounds and livestock commons and turn them into artificial forests by displacing people from here.”

Arun Vignesh, DFO of the Eastern range of KNP, however, said that there is no clarity that the tiger, which was lynched, came from KNP. “There is a misconception that the tiger came from Kaziranga. This tiger has never been photographed in KNP. Because KNP has a good population of tigers, it is being assumed that they came from here,” he told Mongabay India, adding that tigers can cover long distances during the night, indicating that its origin can be further away. Vignesh also said that KNP currently has 124 tigers. “Bagori and Kohora, which are grasslands, have better populations than Agoratoli (near where the incident took place).”

Fear, loss and lack of timely support

The ten villages that come under Dusotimukh gram panchayat had been on edge since the mutilated corpse of 60-year-old Gopinath Mili was recovered on March 25. Mili, a cattle herder, had taken his cattle for grazing at a riverine sandbar Sial Chapori one evening when a tiger attacked him. Mili is survived by his wife, son, and daughter-in-law.

A resident of Pathori, another village under Dusotimukh, who spoke to Mongabay India on the condition of anonymity as he feared retaliation by authorities, said, “Living near Kaziranga, we are used to seeing tigers and rhinos in our village. We are agricultural workers. We sacrifice a portion of our crop for animals such as rhinos, elephants, and wild boars. We never retaliated against any animal. However, after Gopinath was killed, it created fear among the villagers. It [the tiger] was also killing our cattle almost daily. We informed the forest department several times, but they did not take any action.”

He said normally, a cow costs around ₹12,000, but the compensation paid by the forest department for cattle killed by tigers is a meagre ₹3,500, and alleged that even that is not paid regularly.

Moreover, many houses in these villages do not have toilets inside the homes. “So, going outside at night to use the toilet is always scary,” he added, especially when knowing that a tiger is around. “People don’t even feel safe working in their fields or grazing their cattle when they know a tiger is on the prowl.”

Regarding the lynching of the tiger, he said, “At around 7-8 am, villagers were working in the field, and the tiger suddenly emerged. They thought the tiger might attack them, and so, in fear, they retaliated. It was the same tiger which had killed Gopinath Mili.”

Vignesh said the claim that the tiger that killed Gopinath Mili and was later lynched the same is, at best, circumstantial. “Because both incidents happened in the same area, people think that both tigers are the same,” he said.

Speaking to Mongabay India, Montura Mili, the 25-year-old son of Gopinath, said, “My father was the main earning member of our family. I used to work in a tea mill in Golaghat. A machine crushed my hand in an accident. A steel rod is implanted in my right hand. We have just one and a half bigha land, and so we can’t do much agriculture either.” Montura informed that his family got an ex gratia compensation of ₹4 lakh and the forest department also hired him as casual staff. But he has concerns about the irregularity of salary disbursements.

Challenges in tackling tigers

Animals such as elephants, rhinos, and tigers are also moving to Majuli, the largest river island in the world. Abhijit Doley, Ranger, Majuli division, told Mongabay India that these animals had been primarily seen in Ahotguri gram panchayat, which is a little more than 50 kilometres from the Eastern range of KNP.

“Not just cattle, tigers here also kill horses, a means of transport for people living in these islands,” he said. “Moreover, rhinos and elephants also raid their crops. We do not have forest camps in 90% of Majuli, and so we live in the homes of villagers in most places. We also face a severe workforce crunch with just 15 front-line staff and communication bottleneck as these islands can be reached only by boat,” Doley explained about the challenges of tackling these animals in a territorial division.

Aaranyak, a non-profit environmental organisation, is currently carrying out a study on human-animal conflict in Majuli. Deba Kumar Dutta, Senior Manager, Rhino Research and Conservation Division of Aaranyak, who is heading the programme, said that there are 68 riverine islands vulnerable to wildlife presence in Majuli, of which 35 are highly sensitive. Vulnerable areas are prone to potential human wildlife interactions and conflicts while highly sensitive areas are where such conflicts are taking place already.

Better conflict management needed

According to the last tiger census in 2022, India is home to 3,682 tigers, roughly 75% of the global tiger population. At the same time, the number of reported incidents of human-animal conflicts are also more regular. In November last year, a tiger was stoned to death in the fringes of Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. In February this year, another tiger was killed near Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey said that such conflicts are bound to increase with the number of tigers. “We can’t fully stop these incidents,” he said. “However, conflict management and sensitisation should be implemented. Also, compensation should be disbursed promptly so there is no revenge killing.  There should be enough wildlife-trained officers and workforce in the territorial divisions considering tigers use those areas as corridors, especially in the vicinity of tiger reserves.”

Speaking to Mongabay India, Rajesh Gopal, Secretary General of Global Tiger Forum, said that while human-tiger interactions will remain a challenge, there should be a landscape approach with overarching community stewardship.

“When a tiger enters an agricultural field, and farmers are unable to harvest, they will try to chase away the tiger, sometimes leading to what we saw happen in the Brahmaputra floodplains (the tiger lynching in Golaghat),” he said. “Nowadays, we have access to technology at reasonable costs. So, money should be used for e-surveillance and capacity building of the local community.”