Man-Eaters After Jim Corbett: Ecology of Tiger Attacks in Sugarcane Farms of Tarai – Kheri & Pilibhit District

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Man-eating is something abnormal and terrifying. When the problem erupts, it comes fast with a shocking velocity and a pure supernatural terror swipes the farmlands as the hallmark of killers' arrival.

Aggression of aberrant predators is overwhelmingly obvious. They sometimes show complete control over the terrain on which they operate with deliberate purpose. To a scientific mind, man-eating might be a part of nature's cycle; but when it comes into play, it jeopardises the life of natives as well as life of ordinary tigers that operate habitually in sugar farms and don't pose problems for village communities. Man-eating brings chaos in people's lives and then their focus shifts to the tiger's accomplished hunting prowess and other dangerous capabilities that create mayhem and the normal tigers, whose ideal life is a life of proper syllogism in sugar farms, also begin to fall victim to native vengeance.

The phenomenon of man-eater presents a distressing contrast to the grim economic prospects of the people. This is an unsustainable situation that continues to explode cyclically in Tarai sugarfarms, then translocation or lethal control of the animal becomes compulsory. Wrought by humans through larger changes in ecology, the Tarai landscape of Pilibhit and Kheri districts has served as a living laboratory for the author to study the man-eating tigers. He talks of aberrant, nomadic man-eaters and large quantum of unprovoked attacks on humans done unintentionally by juveniles and deals with the predicament of man- eaters that often come to live in sugar farms alongside normal tigers and reflect dietary changes. These generate a kind of situation one only encounters in nightmares.

This book is a personal account of unrivalled adventures experienced by Prof. Rahul Shukla, scion of feudal family, a former hunter and a distinguished Indian naturalist, he has devoted a valuable amount of time and energy to the pursuit of man-eaters in sugar farms of Himalayan Tarai. He has formulated the theory of "Sugarcane Tiger" that live outside the protected areas in Tarai farmlands; they neither trouble humankind nor go back to jungles. This ecological wonder has been acknowledged by scientific community and the nomenclature "Sugarcane Tiger" has been included in international wildlife lexicon.

Vinod Krishna Singh (Indian Forest Service), former Conservator of Bareilly Circle and Director Lion Safari Etawa, presently serves as Chief Conservator and Member Secretary to State Zoo Authority in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Rajendra Kumar Singh (Indian Forest Service) is Director Lucknow Zoo and Chief Conservator of Lucknow circle

For last 35 years the Forest department of Uttar Pradesh has been a constant witness to Professor Rahul Shukla's long and ground breaking study on Sugarcane tigers that he has single handedly and arduously conducted in farmlands of the Tarai. Prof. Shukla has combed the sugar fields of some 418 Tarai villages to accomplish his self sponsored studies on tigers living outside protected areas. His data of over a hundred tigers that lived in agrarian fields for years has finally culminated into a three volume research of high utility for rural wildlife conservation. Forest department congratulates him for his outstanding scientific research work on farmland wildlife and also for the insight into conservation of farmland tigers by minimizing man-tiger conflict.

We have no misgivings in declaration that the conservation of sugarcane tiger is synonymous with the name of Prof. Shukla. His research analysis of long and short term threats to tigers, monitoring tigers, man-eater problem, poaching escalation, dealing with aberrant tigers, enhancing local capacity to tolerate presence of tigers, community education and village level policy interventions to protect tigers ete have been of great use to field foresters.

Pro. Shukla has served as Honorary Wildlife Warden of Kishanpur Dudhwa National Park. He has chased many man-eaters for study purpose; helped forest department in their capture, recovered over twenty human kills made by tigers, and has stood by villagers with firearms to help them harvesting their crops against the terror of man-eaters but he addresses man-animal conflict in favor of tigers. He has designed the concept of "Tiger Guardian" that has been implemented far and wide by the department.

Many Farmers in whose sugar farms tigers live, have been appointed as their guardians and this has yielded positive results.

Model of Prof. Shukla's Public Service Campaign to contain man-tiger conflict gives natives the nuances of living with predators. I am happy to say that since our department has incorporated his ideas into our existing model of containing conflict, it has drastically brought down the graph of human and tiger deaths in the Tarai.