Bengal Tigers Increasingly Stalk Human Prey in Forests of Southern Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh — At dusk, when royal Bengal tigers stir from their lairs, villagers on the edge of the Sundarbans forest in southern Bangladesh blow trumpets and explode firecrackers to try to shoo the great beasts away.

“This is almost a ritual around the jungles,” said forest administration official Gholam Habib. “It often helps save lives.”

Often, but not always. About a fifth of the Sundarbans’ estimated 500 tigers are man-eaters, and the magnificent but fearsome animals are again killing increasing numbers of people after a period of declining activity.

Attacks by the tigers, who grow to 10 feet in length, have led villagers to burn bonfires as a deterrent or to seek spirit “protection” by sacrificing bulls to a jungle deity.

“This is our belief, and we have maintained it for generations,” said villager Taiab Ali, 45.

Tigers have killed 45 people in the Sundarbans in the last nine months, compared to 33 in all of 1987 and 16 the year before, official records show. Most attacks occur at night.

The mutilated body of one of the latest victims, 40-year-old woodcutter Hanif Hawlader, was recovered from a marsh on Oct. 10.

Habib said in an interview that attacks will increase in coming months as thousands of people make seasonal forays to collect timber deep in the forest where the royal Bengals have their lairs.

Forest official Abul Kashem said that in a recent one-month period, tigers killed about 20 cows and buffalos and injured a man in one village alone.

However, the royal Bengal tiger is listed as an endangered species. The tidal mangrove forest on the Bay of Bengal has seen a rise in their numbers to at least 500 from 300 in 1985, thanks partly to a decade-old ban on hunting in the Sundarbans.

The numbers of birds, crocodiles and other animals have also increased, and the deer population has almost doubled to 100,000 since 1985.

Forest officials say they are happy about the rise in the tiger population--an opinion shared by few of the 40,000 people who live in the villages on the edge of the Sundarbans or who work in it.

One morning in October, villagers awoke to see a tiger prowling in the early winter fog. Women and children screamed and ran for cover as forest rangers arrived and opened fire at the growling predator. It fled unharmed in the confusion.

The 2,250-square-mile forest is a place of outstanding natural beauty.

At sunset, spotted deer, monkeys and crocodiles can be seen thronging the desolate Bay of Bengal beaches. Large bats glide over green treetops in search of wild figs and insects.

In the daytime, thousands of birds, including white-breasted kites and wild ducks, sweep through the sky.

The government sees the area as a potential tourist attraction and plans to build a game sanctuary at Hiron Point, 70 miles from the country’s second sea port at Mongla.

Ironically, the Sundarbans’ tourist prospects are threatened more by man than by tigers.

Hundreds of bandits roam the forest waterways and intercept boats. Poachers kill tigers and other animals for their skins.

A tiger skin fetches up to $1,000 on Bangladesh’s black market and up to $2,000 abroad, Habib said.

The waterways have been polluted by chemical waste from sea-faring vessels, forest officials said.

An official, who requested that he not be identified, commented: “All of us wish foreign tourists to come and enjoy the beauties of Sundarbans. But it will remain a dream as long as we fail to tame the dacoits (bandits) and build appropriate facilities.”