How and when a tiger is declared man eater

Patna, Oct 10: India has lost one more tiger. T-104, a three-year-old male tiger, also named as the 'man-eater of Champaran' was shot dead by the forest department of Bihar in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in a massive operation.

The tiger had killed 10 people and several domestic animals in the district was shot dead in a sugarcane field 8 October 2022 after a marathon hunt for 28 days across 30 square kilometres. Reportedly, the big cat claimed two lives on Saturday - Babita Devi, a widow, and her eight-year-old son . The tiger was also accused of allegedly killing nine people since May.

Following the incident, the forest department delared the elusive tiger a man-eater, a term that legally allows the animal's capture.

In general, a tiger who ventures into human habitation is termed a "man-eater" but the process of declaring the big cat as a man-eater is quite technical.

Tigers are included in scheduled I of the Wildlife (Protection/) Act, 1972 and have been given full protection against hunting under section 9 (1). They can be hunted only if they become dangerous to human life or if they are so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery.

The Chief Wildlife Warden has been given the authority to permit any person to hunt such as animal and before doing so, he has to back his claim with evidence that the tiger in question killed humans not once but several times.

According to NTCA, "If a tiger begins to seek out, stalk and wait for human beings and has after killing a person, eaten the dead body, it is established beyond doubt that the animal has turned into a man-eater.

When a tiger has been declared a man-eater, only experienced and senior forest officers should be authorised to destroy it. In no case permits should be given to others.

Efforts to trap and tranquilise the animal should, however, continue along with the steps taken to destroy it. But in no case efforts to destroy it should slacken for the sake of trapping or tranquilising to succeed.

"Declaring a tiger as a man eater is quite technical. It is not an ammo to the forest officers to kill the animal. We are here to protect the wildlife. The first priority is to tranquilise the tiger and capture it. When all attempts to tranquilise it fail, the last option is to kill the animal," said a forest officer told OneIndia.

Notably, the Wildlife Protection Act a tiger cannot be declared as man-eater even if more than one human is killed inside the reserve forest area, as they are considered home to a vivacious wildlife.