Bihar: Tiger kills another villager near VTR in West Champaran, alarms forest officials

PATNA/BAGAHA: A 40-year-old woman was killed by a tiger, causing panic among the villagers staying near the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran Monday evening. The villagers said tigers have been frequently straying out of the original habitat and entering the human settlements.
Reports quoting local villagers and police said one Gulbadan Devi, the wife of Buddhi Ram Mahato from Kala Bairiya, had gone to her paddy field in the evening when a Royal Bengal tiger hiding inside the bushes came from behind and mauled her to death. Angry villagers on Tuesday protested with the body before the forest department office and demanded a compensation of Rs5 lakh. They withdrew the protests after the officials assured them to look into their demand.
"We will pay compensation to her family as soon as possible," VTR director-cum-conservator of wild life, Nesamani K, told TOI. He advised the villagers to stay vigilant and not to go to their agriculture fields alone.
This is possibly the fifth such incident in that area this year. On July 16, one Dharmraj Kaji had been killed while he was busy sprinkling fertilizer in his field. The villagers identified his body on the basis of his clothes and slippers as only his skeleton was left on the spot. On July 4, one Banka Manjhi was mauled to death when he had gone to cut grass from the forest area.
Parvati Devi and 13-year-old Rajkumar Baitha were killed in similar attacks by the maneater tiger on May 20 and May 14 respectively. Both had gone to graze their goats in the agriculture field adjacent to the VTR.
The man-animal conflicts have become a matter of serious concern for the local villagers as they continue passing sleepless nights out of fear of being attacked by the tigers. One of the main reasons behind the tigers moving out of their natural habitat and intruding into the human settlements is said to be their increasing population at VTR, the lone tiger reserve in the state.
"They (tigers) have been venturing out of the VTR since their number has increased but we are very much on alert to prevent them from entering human settlements," the VTR director said. He said they have intensified patrolling and making the people aware about the tigers' activities. "A recent development has been that the tigress had been giving birth to babies in sugar cane fields," he said.
Former VTR director HK Roy said another reason behind tigers straying out of their habitat is the territorial fight among them. According to him, the number of tigers has gone up from 32 in 2018 to 50. He denied the food crisis behind the big cats roaming around the human settlements.
The VTR, spread over 899 square kilometres of area and home to various animals such as sloth bear, leopard, Indian bison, hyena, wild dogs, several species of deer and antelopes, leopard cat, wild cat, fishing cat, wild boar, flying fox, serow, civets and flying squirrels has been ranked the fifth best tiger reserve in India. According to forest officials, the increased grassland at the tiger reserve has seen a rise in the number of bison, which resulted in growth of tiger population as this increased the habitats for prey animals.