R S TEJUS:
It was a quiet Monday evening on June 9, deep inside the forest of the Biligiri Ranganatha Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve. Ravi, a Soliga tribesman from the Ramaiahana Podu, had just finished visiting relatives. As he walked back under the dimming forest canopy, he stopped briefly to relieve himself, just 100 meters from his home. In that moment, the forest’s silence was torn apart. A tigress, unseen and unsettled, leaped from the shadows. Ravi’s cries echoed amid the trees. He survived, barely. His body now lies stretched on a hospital bed. His mind scarred forever.
The very next morning, as the forest light filtered through the Bedaguli beat of BRT Tiger Reserve, tragedy struck again. Rangamma of the nearby Bedaguli Podu stepped out of her hut for a similar purpose. The same tigress struck again. This time, there were no second chances. Rangamma was killed instantly.
LEGALLY NOTIFIED TIGER RESERVE
These attacks, a kilometer apart, happened deep inside a legally notified Tiger Reserve created to protect tigers in a safe habitat. But it was the tigress who was penalized as she was tranquilized, captured, and exiled to a rescue centre near Mysuru. Dispossessed again.
But this is neither the story of villains nor Ravi and Rangamma. Not even the tigress. This is a story that once again busts the myth of harmonious coexistence with large carnivores inside India’s tiger reserves. The myth of coexistence, peddled by the distant and disconnected in seminar rooms far from the forest floor, a school of new genre of academics, disconnected from field realities are getting increasingly vocal about “harmonious coexistence.”
INTERESTING CASE STUDIES
However, the same academics publish papers bemoaning the negative impact of forest fragmentation. In BRT itself, three published papers on NTFP extraction make up an interesting case study. The first paper published in 1996 found that “… regeneration is affected by collection of seeds and fruits from non-timber forest product species”.
Later in 2002, the second paper concluded that “Current fruit harvesting strategies and techniques used by the Soligas focus on maximizing the economic returns by adopting methods of extraction such as lopping of branches and cutting of trees. Such practices can ultimately decrease the rates at which the populations grow, thereby making the extraction of Phyllanthus fruits unsustainable”.
CAN HUMANS & TIGERS LIVE TOGETHER?
Finally, in the third paper, it was shown that NTFPs for livelihood gains (win) has most frequently been at a certain ecological cost (loss). They cite ancient examples of harmony. They declare from their AC towers that humans and tigers can “live together” if only they “understand” each other better. But they do not walk the beats. They don’t patrol at night; ears tuned for the crunch of paws or rustle of tusks. They don’t hold the hands of a child who has lost a mother to a bear attack. They don’t stitch flesh under a lantern’s flicker like villagers once did in BRT after a sloth bear mauled a honey collector.
Back in 2008, a Soliga tribesman climbing a tree to collect wild honey was viciously attacked by a sloth bear, drawn by the same food source. The forest became a battlefield. The injured man was operated on throughout the night by a lone doctor and two tribal researchers, under the glow of a single lantern.
The Soliga tribesman survived but the incident laid bare a hard truth: humans and wildlife cannot compete for the same resource and both survive peacefully. This is not a folklore or philosophy but a reality. When ecological space collapses, so does the illusion of coexistence. They forget or perhaps never knew that these same forests, now icons of protection, were once ravaged by slash-and-burn cultivation, open poaching, and rampant timber smuggling. It was not coexistence but conservation laws and the relentless courage of forest officers that saved these forests.
BRT Tiger Reserve was reborn not through theory, but through the will of those who chose the forest over convenience. Those who argue for mythical harmony conveniently overlook that it was the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, and the declaration of BRT as a sanctuary in 1974, that stopped the devastation. Logging ceased. Slash-and-burn ended. The tiger population rebounded not because of human love but because of human absence.
The forest is full today, incredibly BRT supports 38 tigers, over 500 elephants, and more than 7000 tribal residents spread across 53 podus in just 574 sq kms.
The NTCA report clearly says that increase in human population is leading to the decline in tiger numbers in BRT. It is, by all ecological standards, bursting at the seams. Tigers are territorial. Elephants are wide-ranging. Sloth bears roam unpredictably. With no scope for increase in forest land, and a steady increase in human population, something has to give.
PLIGHT OF TIGERS IN A PROTECTED HABITAT
Please note that the wildlife numbers mentioned here are just approximate. And increasingly, it’s the wildlife that’s losing. And the poorest tribal lives are still paying. The recent tigress wasn’t aggressive. She was old, wounded in territorial fights, homeless in her own home, and compelled to risk proximity to humans.
Had this incident happened in a bustling town like Kollegala, relocation would have made sense. But this was a core tiger habitat, and still she was removed. So ask yourself: If even in a tiger reserve, the tiger isn’t safe, where will they be?
VOLUNTARY RELOCATION
The Only Way Forward now is – we must face the truth: permanent, harmonious coexistence between dense human populations Where human densities exceed 10 persons per sq km and large wildlife in a small protected areas are ecologically impossible. This is not an argument against the Soliga people. On the contrary, it is an argument for their safety, dignity, and future.
Relocation is often misunderstood, grimly painted as eviction. But when done voluntarily, with respect, transparency, and robust rehabilitation, it can uplift communities. Look at Bhadra Tiger Reserve. Families now enjoy access to schools, clinics, power, fertile farmland, and legal rights without the lurking fear of death by claw or tusk.
In BRT Tiger Reserve, we hope for the Karnataka Forest Department to initiate talks with the tribals leaders for voluntary relocation after the recent attacks. But this cannot remain on paper. It must become a model for win-win conservation, where the forest breathes free and the Soligas live without fear.
Let us also remember: the Soligas are not our enemies. They are part of this land. But even they deserve a better life than haunted by conflicts.
WILDLIFE HAS NO VOICE OR VOTE
We Must Speak the truth for it. While we must undo the injustices that forest-dwelling communities have faced, we cannot do so by inflicting new injustices on wildlife creatures with no voice, no vote, and no means to protest. They roamed these landscapes long before humans set foot.
Their survival now depends entirely on our restraint. Justice is not about choosing one life over another. It is about creating systems where both can thrive without living in fear, without being sacrificed for convenience or theory. To achieve that, wildlife needs space. Real, inviolate, undisturbed space.
THE CALL OF BRT – ACT BEFORE THE NEXT DEATH
The Bedaguli tigress is now behind iron bars, pacing silently, a shadow of her former self. Rangamma lies in a shroud. Ravi is reckoning with pain. And the forest mourns wordless, ancient, and tired. More than 10 serious wildlife attacks have happened in BRT since 2020, mostly by elephants and other large animals. But this was the first by a tiger. How many more need to suffer before we let go of utopian fantasies?
If we love the tiger, if we care for the Soligas, and if we want forests to thrive beyond our lifetime, then we must choose courageous conservation, not romantic slogans. Because, this is not a question of whether humans and tigers can live together. This is a question of whether we are wise enough to let both live.
(PHOTO CREDIT: SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE OF PARISARA PARIVARA, DR RAMESH HULIYA, TEJUS V AND RANJIT HEGDE)