Living with the wild: mitigating conflict between humans and big cat species in Uttar Pradesh
Humans running into tigers and leopards, that left at least 156 people dead and injured in Dudhwa-Pilibhit area of Uttar Pradesh between 2000 and 2013 were due to people venturing into the forests and not the other way round, says a report. Dudhwa-Pilibhit area, which is spread over 5,000 sq km, has four key reserves -- Dudhwa National Park, Katerniaghat and Kishanpur wildlife sanctuary, and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. The region tops in human-big cat conflict. While all forests patches of this landscape are surrounded by villages, Pilibhit has the highest rate of human fatalities caused by tigers. At least six people had been confirmed killed by March 2018 this year and 21 in 2017 by at least five different tigers in Pilibhit. One tiger was declared man-eater, caught and sent to Lucknow Zoo in February 2017. The report "Living with the Wild: Mitigating Conflict between Humans and Big Cat Species in Uttar Pradesh" gives and alternate view pointing out reasons behind human deaths and rejecting "stories" that project big cats in bad light.