Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Tigers killed 11 people In Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district in May this year, taking the death toll from such attacks to 22 this year for the state.
The district, home to the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, is ground zero for tiger-human conflicts in the state. With a reported 200 royal Bengals in the district alone, human settlements around the periphery of the reserve are increasingly vulnerable.
Between 2021 and May 2025, at least 173 people have died in wildlife attacks in Maharashtra, with 150 of those deaths blamed on tigers. The state’s human fatalities from tiger encounters peaked in 2022 with 112 deaths, 53 of them in Chandrapur.
Injuries caused by wildlife attacks have surged from 76 in 2021 to 314 in 2024. This year, 129 injuries have been reported till May.
Maharashtra has also emerged as the worst-hit state for leopard attacks, with 113 fatal incidents between 2017 and 2022.
In addition to human population pressure – Maharashtra is one of India’s most industrialised states – climate change and erratic rainfall patterns are believed to be pushing animals further from their core zones, often into “human areas”. The result: Increasing conflict.
“Human-wildlife conflict isn’t because of animals, but because of us,” said Sunil Limaye, the state’s retired principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife, west). “Animals are just asking for their own space and there is a fight for space.”
He said the problem escalates during the months of April and May when local residents enter the forest to collect tendu leaves and mahua. Those are the very hours – early morning and dusk – when the big cats are most active.
“We warn them every year, but people still go in. They take cattle to graze, or enter for collection purposes without understanding the risks,” Limaye explained.
The situation is similar in Bengal’s Sunderbans, where fishing and honey collection in the jungles often leads to attacks.
In Maharashtra 22 tigers and leopards have been tranquilised and relocated to enclosures including Kanhargaon Sanctuary, Gorewada Zoo in Nagpur, and the Transit Treatment Centre in Chandrapur since July 2023.
But Limaye is unconvinced that relocation is a long-term solution.
“According to NTCA [National Tiger Conservation Authority] guidelines, if there is a killing, don’t wait for a second one — tranquilise and remove the animal. But this only shifts the problem,” he said. “The new territory is unfamiliar, and the animal, scared and disoriented, may cause more problems. We’re not solving the root issue.”
Chandrapur isn’t alone.
Palghar district, bordering Gujarat and known for its chikoo and chili farms, recently witnessed back-to-back leopard attacks in broad daylight.
In May a woman working in a chikoo orchard, was mauled at 8:30am. Just 30 minutes later, another man was attacked in a nearby chilli field. Both survived but sustained serious injuries.
Locals in such areas move in groups, specially while working in orchards or commuting between villages. The forest department has advised them to remain cautious and avoid being alone during early morning or late evening hours.
A similar attack in April in Vanarwadi village of Nashik turned fatal. A leopard dragged away Payal Rajendra Chavan, 20, while she was cutting grass. Despite her family’s efforts to rescue her and immediate hospitalisation, she died due to severe injuries and blood loss.
In the same village last year, a leopard killed a 15-year-old out grazing cattle.
"Leopards are elusive. They move quietly and strike fast. Even with surveillance, it's hard to predict," explained Limaye.
But not all stories of human-wildlife encounters end in tragedy. In Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), nestled in one of the world's most densely populated cities, a different approach has yielded results.
Back in the early 2000s, Mumbai was plagued with frequent leopard attacks. Limaye, then the park’s Field Director, along with wildlife biologist Dr Vidya Athreya, launched Mumbaikars for SGNP in 2011. It is a community-based initiative that changed the way the Maximum City coexists with its big cats.
“We couldn’t teach animals, but we could teach people how to behave,” Limaye recalled. The initiative focused on research, awareness and behavioural change.
Media portrayal, too, played a role. “The media was sensationalising the leopard issue. People started believing every leopard was a man-eater,” Limaye said. The project worked to counter that narrative and build community resilience.
Mumbaikars for SGNP focused on measures like avoiding stray dogs near forest edges because leopards follow them as prey. They also urged the villagers to maintain cleanliness to reduce prey like feral pigs and rodents.
The initiative demonstrated that leopard attacks were often not acts of aggression but accidents – leopards mistaking humans for prey or defending themselves. "They’re opportunistic animals," Limaye explained. "They go for what’s easy — dogs, pigs, even rodents. Human attacks are rare and usually accidental."
The model proved so effective that it has since been adopted in parts of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
Yet, for communities in areas like Chandrapur, fear has seeped into daily life.
Limaye insisted a larger systemic shift is needed.
“There must be awareness, yes — but more importantly, there must be enforcement,” he said. “People must stop encroaching. You cannot claim forest land as your right. These are not rogue animals. They’re displaced.
“The tiger and leopard issues may differ in nature,” he explained, “but at the core, they are the same: a fight for space. Tigers and leopards are even adapting. They are also creating mental maps of human activity to avoid conflict. But how long can that balance hold if we don’t respect their space?”
