Over hunting in major areas of India have now caused extreme conflict between the Bengal tiger and humans. Living in the largest population in the Sundarbans National Park in West Bengal India, the Bengal tiger accounts for half of the world's population of tigers. But now, as the human population increases in those areas, development and hunting increase at the same rate, causing the tiger’s natural prey: wild pigs, buffalo, deer, and other large mammals to dwindle in population. Ultimately resulting in scarce left overs for the tigers. Hungry and angry, these tigers now look to the humans as prey.
Another conflict of interest between these two mammals is fish. Due to high development in the areas of the Sundarban delta, which stretches from Bangladesh to India as the world’s largest mangrove forest, pollution of the freshwater and rising sea levels have caused a significant decrease in the fish population. This results in fisherman and farmers having to travel deeper into prohibited areas of the forest in order to harvest and provide food for their villages – in turn, coming face to face with Bengal tigers. Due to the scarcity of resources, a full day’s trip into the forest can pay 700 Indian rupees ($10), compared to a regular farming day that brings in 247 Indian rupees ($3).
“This is why local people, who are mostly fishermen and farmers, have to venture deeper into the forest, right into tiger territory for their livelihood, which is, catching fish, crab and collecting honey,” stated President of the Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum, Pradip Chatterjee. The forum is an association of the fishing community of south Bengal.
There has been an estimate of 3,000 deaths due to tiger attacks on the villagers. About 15,000 villagers have permits that allow them into those areas, but about four times that amount actually travel within. Many deaths and necessary compensation have not been recorded out of fear of litigation because of the occupation in prohibited areas. Large groups of labor workers have returned to those regions from participating in migrant work in the surrounding cities and states. The more men that traveled back into the Sundarban, the higher the number traveled into the jungle.
Many accounts and interviews of the families of the lost were taken and published, in the possible hope of bringing compassion and stricter laws to those areas. Unfortunately there is a domino effect in progress: because of the increase in the human population, there is a higher depletion of natural resources, causing both the humans and tigers to meet deep in the jungle – both hungry and both believe to be each other's fate.
