Does the Sundarbans tiger eat people?
Does the Sundarbans tiger eat people?
The text is not a research paper.
"The Sundarbans tiger in my experience"
Just a discussion on the topic. .
Food diversity of Sundarbans tigers.
A constant fact must be accepted that in the wild both prey and predator have keen senses. Deer and pig are the only animals in the primary diet of Sundarban tiger. Analyzing the instincts developed to survive and protect themselves in the Sundarbans, deer are gregarious animals. Everyone has a direct responsibility for the safety of the team and they perform it well. Being in groups, their collective powers of sight, hearing, smell help them to defend themselves. As the Indian Sundarbans do not have vast grasslands, there is virtually no grazing ground for deer. Because they roam in small areas, there is little opportunity for large herds of deer to form here. He is therefore largely deprived of the aid of many collective senses. As their natural grazing ground is in the forest or forest edge with a little paddy grass forage or a little bit of grass clippings, the salamander vegetation helps in self-defense. In the Sundarbans, shrubs, short plants, and thorny respiratory roots spread across the forest floor help them survive. Because the tiger's paws or pads are soft, it cannot accelerate like hard-hooved deer and pigs on this rough terrain. Due to the slow pace of the tiger, the herd of deer and pigs disappeared behind the bushes in an instant.
Sundarbans pigs are slightly smaller than other wild pigs. Male pig weighs 75 to 100 kg, female 60-80 kg. Although the sight is a little less than the deer, it has made up for its hearing and sense of smell. Due to their bifurcated strong hooves, they are fast moving even on rough ground, not very able to chase the tiger and hunt it easily. Next in the list of food comes gosps, monkeys, birds, and forest cats, cheetahs, cats, tigers, voles, turtles, fish, shrimps, crabs, even honey, etc. There is a major disparity in the diet of Sundarban tigers with other forests. There are no animals like hyenas, wild dogs, etc. to look at the food that tigers hunt. Those who do have no power to rob, they only take advantage of the slight absence of tigers like sneaking thieves, which is negligible.
Sundarbans pigs are slightly smaller than other wild pigs. Male pig weighs 75 to 100 kg, female 60-80 kg. Although the sight is a little less than the deer, it has made up for its hearing and sense of smell. Due to their bifurcated strong hooves, they are fast moving even on rough ground, not very able to chase the tiger and hunt it easily. Next in the list of food comes gosps, monkeys, birds, and forest cats, cheetahs, cats, tigers, voles, turtles, fish, shrimps, crabs, even honey, etc. There is a major disparity in the diet of Sundarban tigers with other forests. There are no animals like hyenas, wild dogs, etc. to look at the food that tigers hunt. Those who do have no power to rob, they only take advantage of the slight absence of tigers like sneaking thieves, which is negligible.
No matter how varied the diet, all prey other than deer and pigs satisfy the tiger's eye, not stomach. Humans are the exception, for natural reasons tigers include humans in their diet. A point to be made here is that some people adduce some evidence to prove that tigers are not man-eaters. In many cases, after rescuing the injured person, it is found that the tiger has eaten him intact or the soft part of the lower body has been slightly eaten. The recovered body was not fully or largely consumed. Such events are absolutely correct. But not considered here, man is the only animal preyed upon by the tiger which man tries his best to rescue if given the opportunity. When people are victims, everyone tries to rescue the body quickly. Tigers usually eat 10-15 kilograms of meat at a time. If the body weight of the victim is 60 kg, then the tiger will eat and drink freely for 4-5 days. But people don't often give him that chance, saving the dying man in a desperate effort. In that case, if we say that tigers are not man-eaters, then it is completely wrong. To prove that tigers are not man-eaters, some people talk about tiger attacks in villages, where cows, goats, dogs, etc. are hunted, but people are spared. We know tigers are nocturnal animals, and sneak into villages in the dark of night. At that time, people sleep with the door closed. Even if a tiger comes to the door, it does not tear its horns apart from domestic animals.
Then if we come back to the current Sundarbans, we will see that the coexistence of tigers and humans in the Sundarbans is involved in a complex environment. Human settlements in the northern fringes of the Sundarbans have been known since before the 14th century. Although there are mentions of human settlements, we have very little information about their way of life and livelihood. But as we know, Sundarbans has arranged our livelihood within its biodiversity. So as people moved closer and deeper into the forest to begin that simple subsistence lifestyle, the settlements and farmlands in the south gradually developed.
Like any animal, the tiger is lured by its easy prey. Humans are such easy prey. Other prey-animals know the tiger as their enemy but cannot resist the tiger with their intelligence, their combined efforts. This is how nature has managed to maintain its balance. But humans are not the product of Sundarbans biodiversity. So the environmental instincts of the Sundarbans were not developed among these people. His intelligence, combined with deterrence, tried to keep the tiger away from him. In self-defense, humans have killed tigers while driving them away; But this killing is not a recreational sport for him. Tiger hunting in the Sundarbans was made a sport first by the Mughals and later by the British. They lured the poor people adjacent to the jungles with them in this game of hunting with the lure of money, the natives were skilled forest-jumps to bring the tigers within range of the guns perched on the lofts of the English. Gradually they also became skilled hunters. Two such skilful and ferocious hunters are mentioned, one in the story of the discovery of Jatar Deul, the other from the hunting life of the 5th century Gazi in the Sundarbans of present-day Bengal. Phillips Shikhari, a Munda youth during forest harvesting, hunted more than 15 tigers during the discovery of Jatar Deul, helping the forest harvesting operations to go smoothly. Pachabd Gazi has hunted 57 tigers in his life.