Rahul Shukla, an expert on Terai tigers, devised an SOP in 1984 to ensure non-fatal encounters with the big cats
A tiger with domestic cattle kill near Ranthambore. Never try to drive a tiger from a livestock kill, advises Shukla. Photo: iStock Imagine this: You are a farmer or someone living in the vicinity of a national park, wildlife sanctuary or tiger reserve somewhere in India’s vast hinterland. It is not a regular urban environment where humans dominate. Instead, it is the realm of species who once held sway over where you might be living now, till they were restricted to these protected areas due to human activities in the colonial or post-independence periods.
As a resident of a village or settlement in these areas, you would regularly cross paths with animals who are armed with the best of Nature’s arsenal: Teeth, claws, horns, tusks, antlers. Or just sheer bulk.
You, as a human being, stand no chance against such formidable weapons. Unless you have firearms.
Living in such wildlife-dominated regions is a fact of life for hundreds of rural communities across the length and breadth of India. They have to survive such encounters. Usually, these are non-fatal. But many people are not that lucky.
The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the uncontested lord of the Indian wilderness. Though some would vouch for the Asiatic Lion, Indian Leopard, Indian Elephant, One-Horned Rhino, Asiatic Wild Buffalo, mugger or saltwater crocodile, Gaur, Sloth Bear or Himalayan Black Bear, all formidable animals in their own right.
An adult tiger has huge canines as well as retractable claws, both of which can rip apart a human being. Or sever his / her neck from the torso.
How can a person in a tiger territory ensure a non-fatal encounter with the big cat in its realm?
Rahul Shukla has worked as a professor at Lucknow Christian College. He has been a member of the Taj Protection Committee, the Uttar Pradesh Wildlife Advisory Board (for two terms), and has been an honorary wildlife warden of the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
Even more than that, Shukla has chronicled the tigers of the Terai — marshy lowlands that form the Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — for over 40 years.
Shukla, 66, knows the loss of losing a loved one to a tiger attack. He lost two maternal uncles to such encounters when he was 11 years old.
The 1980s were a particularly harrowing time for residents of the Terai in Uttar Pradesh, where the main occupation is sugarcane farming. There were a spate of attacks by man-eating tigers which rattled the people of the area.
It was at that time, four decades back in 1984, that Shukla developed a simple standard operating procedure (SOP) to educate people on how to avoid fatal encounters with tigers.
According to Shukla, this is the oldest SOP to avoid tiger attacks in India. He used to go from village-to-village, distributing his SOP to the residents in the form of leaflets. He visited over 450 villages in this way.
“In those days, there were no brand ambassadors for wildlife like Bollywood stars and Team India cricketers today. So I turned to my friends in the IPS and IAS to help me with my endeavour,” Shukla told Down To Earth (DTE).
This ruse worked, for the cavalcade of beacon-topped cars usually created quite a spectacle in the remote villages and people gathered around as Shukla distributed and explained the SOP. “I am grateful to my friends in the administration. Scores of them helped me disseminate important information in this manner,” he told DTE.
Shukla counselling residents of a village that experienced frequent tiger attacks. Photo provided by Rahul Shukla
The first thing that any farmer in tiger territory must remember, according to the SOP, is not to till one’s field alone. There must be at least four-five people around. Strength in numbers, as the maxim goes.
Locals in such areas must move in groups. They must talk loudly, wear colourful clothes and keep to the main roads.
One must never sit on their haunches in such areas. Tigers may mistake people in such postures to be a small prey animal. As is often the case with wildlife attacks, several encounters are often a case of mistaken identity. It is something that people must keep in mind, whether in the case of tigers or even other carnivores or big herbivores.
Shukla also advises people in tiger-dominated areas to take dogs along with them. A dog can alert a human about the presence of an apex carnivore, given it has the best nose in the animal kingdom. Also, in case of a surprise attack, a tiger will prefer a dog first, rather than a human being, said Shukla.
If you are alone and moving around, play loud music on a transistor radio so as to alert a tiger or other dangerous wildlife of your presence. Also, one can beat a jerry can.
Shukla also advises a technique that has also been used in the tiger-inhabited mangroves of the Sundarbans shared by India and Bangladesh. One should wear a mask on the back of their head in tiger territory as the animals usually launch surprise attacks from behind. Wearing a mask can make the animal think the person is facing it.
One should not chase a tiger from a livestock kill, advises Shukla. It can invite an attack.
Lastly, Shukla advises the use of firecrackers in case there is an emergency.
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