23 May 2019

Human deaths in wildlife attacks have been rising in the forests of Brahmapuri in Maharashtra, from six in 2006 to 18 in 2018, most of them in tiger and leopard attacks (The Indian Express, May 20). A look at the factors leading to the area’s emergence as a human-wildlife conflict zone, and the mitigation measures taken or explored:

The area

The 1,200-sq-km Brahmapuri forest division of Chandrapur district — home to 41 tigers (16 males, 25 females, besides some 15-16 cubs) as well as 80-90 leopards — is not a tiger reserve. It has been a mix of about 1,000 sq km territorial forest and about 200 sq km Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra area. About two years ago, 153 sq km of it was declared as Ghodazari Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a protected area from the perspective of commercial forestry, but not so from a wildlife point of view. Contiguous with the 625-sq-km Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) with over 44 tigers , Brahmapuri is today the most precious tiger-bearing non-protected area in the country.

Tiger population

Among the reasons for Brahmapuri emerging a hotspot for human-wildlife conflict, the most obvious is the growth of tiger numbers, from about 15-16 in 2013 to 41 now. With TATR packed with tigers, part of its population has dispersed to adjacent forests in Brahmapuri and other areas. Chandrapur district as a whole has more than 100 tigers, possibly the highest for a district anywhere in the country. Also, outside TATR, the tigers are spread mostly in Brahmapuri area. But while TATR’s 44 tigers have to live with only two yet-to-be-rehabilitated villages, Brahmapuri’s 41 tigers have to live with over 610 villages, half of them close to the forest.

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