Recently, there have been quite a few reports of tigers venturing into human habitations and travelling long distances, even across states. At present, efforts are on to locate a two-and-a-half-year-old animal that travelled 500 km from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal to Solapur-Dharashiv districts. Such reports have sparked a plethora of interpretations, often based on lack of knowledge and misconceptions. Understanding tiger biology and behaviour will provide the necessary clarity in this matter.
Tigers are solitary, wide-ranging carnivores, with adult males patrolling a much larger area than adult females. In ideal habitats with abundant water and large-bodied prey animals, a male tiger’s range can span 150-200 sq. km, though 80% of his time will be spent in a much smaller area (territory) of 45-55 sq. km, largely determined by the presence of breeding females. Tigresses travel much less and have more compact territories, especially when caring for cubs, typically 10-15 sq. km. So, several females can reside within a dominant male’s territory. Thus, range is the broader area explored by a tiger to maximise its breeding success, while territory is where the tiger spends most of its foraging, resting and courting time. Male tigers regularly join their mates and cubs to protect them from intruding tigers.
Tigresses push their cubs away at 16-22 months — female cubs are allowed to establish territories within or near their mother’s territory, but male cubs must leave. These young males face hostility from other tigers and struggle to find unclaimed territories. In well-protected habitats, suitable territories are scarce, forcing young males into degraded habitats near human settlements. These areas have limited wild prey and high livestock density, forcing them to prey on cattle, increasing negative interactions between humans and tigers, often termed as “conflict”. Such cattle-lifting tigers are labelled as conflict animals, prompting calls for their capture and relocation.
Tigers have a good understanding of their natal areas. When translocated to another area, they often try to return to their place of birth, exhibiting homing behaviour. However, due to a battery of human-created issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, fragmentation and urbanisation, they may wander extensively before they make it back to their original territory or, in most cases, inadvertently stray further away. The Similipal case illustrates this fact — forests in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, and southwestern West Bengal are among India’s least suitable tiger habitats, as confirmed by several cycles of all India tiger estimation surveys. These areas are plagued by livestock, logging, mining and fragmented corridors. The tigress that was moved from Tadoba in Maharashtra to Similipal in Odisha, in a failed attempt to return to her birthplace, strayed in the opposite direction, and due to unavailability of suitable habitat continued to disperse further north.
In another case, a male tiger strayed out of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, attacked a few humans, shattered the windscreen of a forest department vehicle, and entered a house before being rescued. This outward movement may have stemmed from him being challenged by another dominant male or the urge to look for a mate. Mostly, such exploratory journeys take place during the night and go unnoticed, but when accidently discovered, hundreds of excited people gather around the tiger stressing it no end, driving it further away from the forest. Such close interactions with a mob of people leads a traumatised tiger to attack whoever comes in its path, in self-defence. Male tigers weigh 160-250 kg and can kill an adult human within seconds, yet most incidents result in injuries, not deaths, highlighting the tiger’s intent to escape rather than kill.
India, with over 1.5 billion people and 3.5 million sq. km of land, has about 10% of its area suitable for tigers. Unfortunately, over 50% of this potential habitat is unsuitable for breeding or resident tigers due to human activities such as poaching of wild prey (deer, antelope, pig and gaur), habitat degradation due to man-made forest fires, livestock grazing and firewood collection for cooking food and heating water, and developmental projects like mines, dams and linear infrastructure (roads, railway lines and canals).
As per the 2022 All India Tiger Estimation, India supports over 3,680 tigers. A conservative, back-of-the-hand estimate suggests that of the total number of cubs born annually, about 1,200 cubs must be reaching dispersal age and moving out of their natal areas in search of a territory, leading to increased human-tiger interactions along the buffer zones of tiger reserves and corridors. The growing human population exerts immense pressure on ecosystems, making conflict inevitable. Not many people know that while India has doubled its tiger population in the past 15 years, habitat integrity has declined during the same period, increasing competition for resources between people and tigers. Due to unavailability of wild prey, tigers outside the core of tiger reserves rely more on livestock, angering marginalised farmers and herders, who resort to electrocution by tapping overhead powerlines or poisoning of tiger kills to eliminate them.
The ability of a habitat to sustain a healthy tiger population is influenced by both ecological and social factors. Ecologically, Indian ecosystems could potentially support an additional 3,000-5,000 tigers. However, this potential is hindered by a lack of social acceptance for tigers in many states.
The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala exemplifies this issue. Despite having intact forests, abundant wild prey, and being connected to well-protected tiger reserves in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, many residents of Wayanad district harbour strong opposition to tigers. The Kerala forest department’s proposal to designate it as a tiger reserve has been perpetually stalled by local politics and public sentiment. Some influential community members even advocate for killing any tiger that wanders outside the sanctuary! Similar, though less extreme, apathy is seen in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and parts of West Bengal. Political will, reflecting societal attitudes, is largely absent in these regions, with only a few NGOs and activists voicing support for tigers.
In summary, it is important to understand the underlying reasons before jumping to conclusions while reading an inflammatory article against tiger conservation. Tigers have often been portrayed as blood-thirsty beasts in the media, but the fact is that domestic dogs kill 18,000 people annually compared to approximately 105 human deaths due to tigers. Yet, we do not hesitate to bring a stray puppy home or go out of our way to feed them on the streets but get worked up at the news of a tiger straying into human habitation. The long-term sustenance of tiger populations rests not only on the protection of the core of India’s 58 tiger reserves (Madhav National Park is the latest to be designated a tiger reserve, this month) but also on the ease with which tigers can disperse from one habitat to another via viable corridors. What we call straying is the natural process of dispersion that maintains genetic diversity in the population.
When you encounter the terms ‘straying’ or ‘conflict’ regarding tigers, remember that humans significantly contribute to these issues. In a thriving ecosystem with ample habitat and migration opportunities, the concept of overpopulation doesn’t exist. Tigers have roamed the Earth for nearly three million years, far longer than Homo sapiens’s brief 0.16 million years. They naturally regulate their populations through competition, leading to dispersion — where weaker tigers either perish or relocate. Problems emerge when humans rapidly reduce or degrade their habitats, leaving tigers little time to adapt. What appears problematic is their effort to adjust to swift changes to their habitat. Tigers simply ask for effective management of protected areas and the corridors linking them. Let’s hope common sense prevails, encouraging introspection rather than finger-pointing at the tigers.
Anish Andheria is president & CEO, Wildlife Conservation Trust. The views expressed are personal
