Achieving More Tigers with Less Conflict
More tigers means more people could encounter them. This poses new challenges for conservationists.
April 28, 2016
For the first time in more than a century, the number of wild tigers is beginning to increase globally. This is the most exciting milestone in tiger conservation since 2010, when 13 tiger range countries united with conservationists to set the ambitious goal of doubling the planet’s 3,200 remaining tigers by 2022, the next Chinese Year of the Tiger. We called this goal ‘Tx2’. Today, six years later, the best available data estimates at least 3,890 tigers living in the wild. Although tigers continue to decline sharply in some places, and the future of the species remains far from secure, we are starting to see the overall trend move in the right direction.
While much more needs to be done to secure the future of tigers, this is cause for some very cautious optimism.
It can be argued that saving tigers is vital simply because watching them disappear is unthinkable. But tiger conservation is about more than just tigers. Protecting them also protects large expanses of forest, benefiting not just other wildlife, but also local communities and entire regions that rely on critical ecosystem services like clean water and air. The fact is, safeguarding tigers means taking care of people as well.
But more tigers isn’t welcome news to everyone. In fact, more tigers means conservationists face perhaps an even greater challenge than we did in 2010. Simply put, more tigers means more people could encounter them, and that can be a problem. As tigers increase, so does the potential for human-tiger conflict that threatens the lives and livelihoods of both people and tigers.
Simply put, more tigers means more people could encounter them, and that can be a problem. As tigers increase, so does the potential for human-tiger conflict that threatens the lives and livelihoods of both people and tigers.
Already many of the protected areas tigers live in today are surrounded by a sea of humanity. Tigers predominantly live in protected areas, where they have established territories. As cubs are born and come of age, they must find their own space. Traveling beyond their parents’ territories, they often wander outside protected areas and into human-inhabited landscapes, which can be a recipe for human-tiger conflict.
For example, a tiger may kill and eat a villager’s livestock. In turn, the villager may kill the tiger. Although some of these tigers end up dead because of a desire for retribution, humans more often kill tigers out of fear. Kaziranga National Park, located in northeast India, has one of the highest tiger densities in the world, and is surrounded by communities that subsist on agriculture and livestock rearing. Particularly during monsoon season, families often wake up to dead livestock — not because of drowning, but because tigers and other animals move through their communities towards higher ground when the national park floods, and prey on livestock as they pass through.
In some places, human development has divided tiger habitats so much that the animals have no option but to cross through populated areas in order to reach other islands of habitat where they can either establish territories, or find mates or food. In central Sumatra, Indonesia, tigers must cross through plantations in order to get from one forested area to another, inevitably leading to dangerous encounters with plantation workers.
In some places, human development has divided tiger habitats so much that the animals have no option but to cross through populated areas in order to reach other islands of habitat where they can either establish territories, or find mates or food.
Elsewhere, deadly encounters arise from humans venturing into tiger habitat to make a living and feed their families. In the Sundarbans mangrove forest of eastern India, traditional honey collectors have long traveled deep into tiger territory to gather a unique type of wild honey — nicknamed “liquid gold” — for both sustenance and income. While doing this, many have been attacked by tigers, sustaining injuries and in some cases losing their lives. Meanwhile, in the lowlands of Nepal — where tigers are on the rise thanks to the government’s commitment to conservation and anti-poaching — villagers risk attack by venturing into the forest to collect wood for cooking.
In each of these cases there are ways to help prevent and mitigate human-tiger conflict. In Nepal, WWF partnered on a program that encourages villagers to use livestock waste to fuel ‘bio-gas’ stoves, which prevents livestock from grazing in protected areas where risk of predator attack is greater, reduces the need for people to collect wood in the forest, and decreases the impacts of smoke generated from traditional cooking fires. On the outskirts of Kaziranga National Park, we’ve helped teach villagers how to better manage livestock herding practices and create predator-proof livestock enclosures, while ensuring they are compensated for lost livestock through a rapidly-disbursed Interim Relief Scheme that has improved local attitudes towards tigers and reduced retaliatory killings. In the Sundarbans, bee boxes placed near the forest in a contained area to lure bees away from dense tiger habitat keep honey collectors safe while producing higher yields of the region’s ‘liquid gold’. And in Sumatra, we provide plantation employees with safety guidelines on how to prevent human-tiger conflict by traveling in groups, making noise, and clearing brush to help deter tigers’ instinctive ambush hunting style.
Such measures have had real positive impact, but as we aim for a world with double the amount of tigers, we need to simultaneously redouble efforts to prevent negative encounters between people and tigers. Human-tiger conflict is a complex issue, and there is no single solution. A mix of preventative measures will be an important component of a world where humans and tigers thrive alongside one another. Stopping the decline of tigers, and watching them begin to climb back, is a significant step on the path to achieving Tx2, but it is up to us to make sure those living closest to tigers can join us in celebrating their return rather than finding it a cause for fear, worry, or vengeance.
