MAHARASHTRA — India. In Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district, human-tiger conflict is escalating, with attacks becoming increasingly common. A mix of factors—including the effects of climate change—is driving tigers out of their natural habitats and into closer contact with people. For those living on the frontlines, the toll goes beyond physical danger: fear, anxiety, and unprocessed grief weigh heavily on families who have lost loved ones or survived tiger encounters.
This video was produced by the Mongabay India team; find more environmental stories from India on their YouTube channel.
Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any inspiring people, urgent issues, or local stories that you’d like us to cover? We want to hear from you. Be a part of our reporting process—get in touch with us here!
Banner image: Female tiger. Image ©Saroshlodhi via Envato.
Transcript
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.This is the sight Mongabay India journalists encountered
on a village road close to a school
in the buffer zone of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve.
A thrilling moment for an outsider for sure.
but tiger attacks have been a cause of anxiety and stress
for the people living close to this protected area —
a tiger reserve that boasts of high tiger numbers.
The tiger had killed an ox.
So, 15-20 people of us went to check the kill.
The tiger hid in the grass, but I didn’t spot it.
The tiger pounced at me and damaged my eye with his paw,
and I fell.
The tiger ran away after everyone started screaming.
Gajanana Choukhe survived the encounter
but it left him incapable of performing physical labour.
His family now supports him.
But, not every encounter is the same.
In 2023, Laxmibai was killed by a tiger.
Her daughter in law, who witnessed the attack,
shared the tragic incident with Mongabay India.
My mother-in-law was working at the farm in the morning.
I went to the farm at around 10 AM carrying lunch.
The attack happened after we had lunch.
She was 10 feet away from me
when the tiger pounced on her.
Did you try to scare away the tiger?
I screamed for help, and that’s when people gathered.
Sulochana now lives in fear.
For many days after the incident,
she suffered nightmares every night.
She is apprehensive about working alone at the farm.
Her husband always accompanies her.
The Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve is about 1,700 square kilometres
and is home to 97 tigers.
Some think there could be as many as 150 tigers.
An adult tiger’s home range is about 40–150 square kilometres,
which it needs to live and hunt.
This need for space can bring them closer to the farms and villages,
leading to more interactions with people.
Degraded forests and easy food outside them
contribute to these encounters.
And since the community relies on forests and farms for a living,
the chances of these interactions are higher.
I am scared, but I have to do this for food and my livelihood.
Since I don’t farm, I have to herd cattle.
We often spot a tiger on the road,
but we feel somewhat safe because of the cattle.
The tiger is more likely to attack the cattle than us,
so we try to move away from the herd and hide in a safe place.
If you come with us, you might see the tiger right now.
If you come with us, you might see the tiger right now.
The government offers 25 lakhs if we die due to a tiger attack.
But what’s the point of that 25 lakhs if we are not alive?
While compensation for lost cattle and lives
may reduce some economic stress temporarily,
what is often overlooked are the long term mental health impacts of tiger attacks.
As people negotiate the presence of tigers
in their day to day lives.
It’s difficult for the men to find brides in [tiger] conflict villages.
Villages in remote forest locations are avoided for marriage.
So men are finding it hard to get married.
So the men have to move to cities where they can marry and build a family.
Their social life is disturbed..
That definetly affects the mental health.
In villages affected by tiger attacks,
memorials like these erected by families
in reverence to the tiger and those lost.
These memorials are also intended as a symbolic plea to the tigers,
asking them to spare the lives of others.
A poignant display of the complex and uneasy relationship
between the people and the tigers.
I do feel that largely,
one emotion that people face is helplessness.
And I mean, I understand that
you are going to a farm,
and you know that there is a tiger around.
But if you don’t go to the farm, it affects your
basically, bread and butter, so you have to do it.
They have, like, cultivated few practices,
like they’ll go everywhere in groups,
or if they’re going somewhere, then they’ll make some noise,
but I think it’s largely helplessness
and the fact that they have accepted this as their reality.
The tiger was this tall, and his jaw was huge.