In Ranthambore, tigers and humans struggle for space and survival
In Rajasthan’s overcrowded reserve, where restrictive territories cost humans and tigers their lives, a man was killed in a tiger attack and the tiger killed by angry villagers. Alisha Dutta travels to villages on the edge of the forest, where residents say the way tigers behave has changed over the years and that their losses are both emotional and financial
On the morning of November 2, on a hillock adjacent to Uliyana village, the rhythmic bleating of goats suddenly went silent. Over the next few hours, the village, situated in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district, witnessed the discovery of a corpse, flying axes and improvised low-intensity devices, a protest, and later in the night, the carcass of a 12-year-old tiger.

Bordering the over 1,500-square-kilometre Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, the village has often seen Royal Bengal Tigers descend from forested hillocks to the low-lying agricultural fields in search of easy prey like cattle. However, on that Saturday, the tiger was allegedly found sitting next to the mauled body of a villager, Bharat Lal Meena, 50. The tiger had one paw on the corpse, say villagers. Later, he was identified as Chirico, or T-86, the Forest Department’s ‘file name’ used for tracking purposes.