Man attacked and taken by a Tiger

Some of you may have heard this story, others may not have but it still holds an important message.

A few weeks ago a man, Sushil Manjhi, was fishing for crabs with his 2 children in the Sundarbans National Park when a Bengal Tiger leapt out and grasped the man in his jaws shaking him furiously before disappearing with the body into the mangrove swamp. The two 
children had tried to beat the tiger with sticks and a knife to no avail and the man was presumed dead.

Although this story is a sad one it is not uncommon, with this being the 4th tiger assault this year alone. Fishing in the national park is in fact illegal yet, because these crabs and other forest goods make good money at market, people risk their lives to enter the forest and fish in the rivers. In India, poverty is a national problem and it is the prospect of earning good money to feed their families which arrives individuals to run such risks.

With such a huge human population in India that continues to grow, conflict is likely to increase due to habitat reduction for the tigers,  as more and more people move into where the tigers were once able to roam freely. The National Park, where the attack happened is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal Tiger species with India having half of the global Bengal Tiger population which is sadly decreasing due to the despicable demand for tiger organs and bones in Chinese medicine.

This attack just shows how powerless humans really are against these animals who are only acting upon natural instincts to survive. It is humans that are entering the tiger's territory and as tiger habitat decreases, it is the national parks which will become crucial for the species survival.

These species deserve to survive and live away from humans, but, is the human race too selfish to care about other species ahead of their own? Although this attack may not seem large in the scale of things, it is the beginning of a major problem, if the human population keeps on growing  at the current rate, where are these people are going to live, and find work without causing conflict with the tigers. I guess only time will tell, all we can be certain of is this sadly won't be the last tiger attack in the Sunderbans National Park.