Is It Tiger's Fault?

Last week a tigress killed a villager at Timaria in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. Now it will create uproar. Questions will be raised on the efforts being made to save the tiger and his world in India. Local politicians will try to take advantage of the situation. Fortunately our government is quite determined to save the tiger and any attempt to hamper conservation efforts will be met with iron hands. Now some of you may ask me on human grounds that isn't it cruelity on my part to defend the tigress who has killed a boy! Well, I will explain it to you.This tigress is having two young cubs and her territory is squeezed between villages. She lives in stress created by the human activities around her, like cattle grazing and collection of Mahua flowers and Tendupatta or beedi-leaf. This boy, while collecting Tedupatta, reached too near to the resting tigress and her cubs. Concerned for her cubs and stressed to the bursting point by the activities of leaf-collectors, and tormented by the heat of Indian summers, she got angry and killed the intruder in a flash. A couple of months before she had killed a stray dog in anguish against the Mahua-collectors, but did not eat the dog. This dog had entered the jungle with the villagers and was killing sppoted deer and their fawns regularly.In 1900, India had 40000 tigers. Now the number has come down to 1410. Most of the prime tiger habitat has been destroyed by the ever-increasing population and poachers are killing tigers and leopards almost every day.Only few pockets of prime tiger habitats are left now. And, when even these small pockets are invaded, such unfortunate incidents happen.