India’s Last Maneaters and Killer Tigers of Sundarbans
The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to largest number of terrestrial predator, the Bengal Tiger. This region is densely covered by mangrove and host one of the largest single populations of tigers in India.
The swamp tigers of the Sundarbans are very aggressive towards humans and regularly kill 50 people a year. Sundarbans tigers are little smaller but extremely powerful with strong swimming abilities and infamous for destroying small wooden boats.
Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans are estimated to kill fifty humans every year and the ratio is highest elsewhere in India. The villagers and fishermen have been attacked by Sundarbans swamp tigers during the day light. Image Source:Discovery
Causes of the tiger attacks in the Sundarbans are said to be saltiness of the water,high tides and swamps but there are other possibilities such as animals hunting difficult for tigers in swamp forest or tigers have grown used to human flesh.
Man Eating Tigers and Leopards
India has the history of man eating Tigers and leopards, Uttarakhand state has the most human leopard conflict in India and Man eating behaviour persist among the tigers of the Sundarban delta. Recently the elusive maneating tigress shot dead in Uttarakhand, six year old tigress had killed two persons and injured four in Uttarakhand.
