Terai, the fertile lowlands between northern India and southern Nepal, runs parallel to the lower Himalayas. Several rivers and numerous streams come down to these plains, building alluvial fans and giving it its character of being marshy. Hence the name Terai, which translates to “moist” in Hindi. The region is also known for its extremes: extreme weathers, extremely intricate forests, and extreme outbreaks of Malaria, leaving Terai untouched for a very long time. In the 1900s, the Sal forests of Terai were subjected to exploitation for  timber and by the 1950s, the problem of Malaria was addressed  with the help of DDT. While the extensive use of DDT greatly affected the bird populations of Terai, it opened the doors for humans to inhabit the area.

Since then, the region has witnessed increased human presence. Forests have been transformed into swaths of agricultural lands, mostly dominated by sugarcane fields. The development of roads and other linear infrastructure has also become a prominent part of the changing landscape.

A Bengal Tiger spotted near human habitation in Pilibhit | Photograph by Anil Kumar/WTI

The changing Terai and the increasing human-wildlife conflict

Fast forward to the present day, Terai Forests of India have now shrunk down to a few Protected Areas (PAs), namely, Jim Corbett National Park (Uttarakhand), Rajaji National Park (Uttarakhand), Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (Uttar Pradesh), Dudhwa National Park (Uttar Pradesh), Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary (Uttar Pradesh), Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (Uttar Pradesh), Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary (Uttar Pradesh) and Valmiki Tiger Reserve (Bihar). These countable forest patches are also constantly shrinking due the increased human interference. This has also led to a stark rise in the incidences of human-wildlife conflict, especially with the larger carnivores like tigers and leopards.

As a field biologist working with Wildlife Trust of India, I have had the opportunity to experience both the change and the rising conflicts, especially across Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, Dudhwa National Park, and Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary. I have been stationed in Pilibhit for just a year, yet the experiences in this short window of time too has been nothing short of an adventure.

A tiger, “out of place”?

I vividly recollect one such case that occurred  during the extreme winters of 2023. It was the month of January and our Rapid Response Team (RRT) was out on the field responding to a call from villagers informing us about the presence of three massive tigers in the heart of their  village. The day was cloudy, with no trace of sunshine making the roads foggier than usual. Our RRT vehicle entered Sadia Mugalpura, drawing the attention of the kids and the teenagers who soon began gathering around us. The tensed adults were  recounted the incident where they sighted the tiger sitting next to a sugarcane field. Some claimed to have seen two, while others claimed a count of three and few even exclaimed the presence of five individual tigers. We started looking for signs, tracks, and set up camera traps to identify the actual numbers.

Walking towards the incident site, I noticed the neatly arranged rows of cow dung cakes along the concrete road. I walked ahead wondering how much time it would have taken to make hundreds of these, and that’s when I noticed it– a clear pugmark of a tiger, right in the middle of the dung cake! Not just one, but the tiger had left behind a trail on the dung cakes. Never had imagined myself to be tracking tiger pugmarks on cow dung.

Following clues given by the villagers and the Primary Response Team (PRT) members, we found a total of three different-sized pugmarks. Villagers were indeed telling the truth but we also needed photographic evidence so the team installed camera traps at strategic points.

WTI RRT setting up camera traps in the field | Photograph by Madhumay Mallik

The very next morning, we had proof of all the three tigers in our camera traps. A mother tiger was moving with her two sub-adult cubs which had grown to almost her size. An urgent sensitization meeting was held and people were warned about the situation.

For the next three months, till the end of March, until the sugarcane was completely harvested and the fields were empty, we were continuously monitoring the tigers to ensure that the villagers stayed away from their vicinity. By the end of January, the tigers had returned to the Mahof Forest Range, the nearest forest area to the Sadia Mugalpura. However, by the beginning of February, themother was out again, with not two but four of her sub-adult cubs around the Pandri village (three km from the forest border).

Expanding tiger habitats and their unique adaptations

It was  chaos! Five full-grown tigers were out of the forest, in the human habitation, amidst the fields during  peak harvesting time. Despite our continuous efforts, meetings, and talks with the villagers and Pradhans (village heads), the group of tigers had resulted in two human casualties and two cases where humans were seriously injured. Villagers were  deeply enraged and our daily visits were getting more and more difficult. Some of the villagers threatened us, but we also met some villagers who had been witness to our efforts from the very first day and decided to let us work.

In the midst of the angry glances we received every time we were out there, I could not stop thinking about this astonishing behaviour of the tigers. A mother tiger was intentionally bringing her cubs outside the forest area, feeding them feral cattle almost three times a week –  and practically familiarizing them with life outside the forests!

The team sat down with the forest department to understand the reason or rather strengthen the speculations. The department informed us  that this female individual with her four cubs was also observed last year, in February 2023 on the border of the forest. They had installed the camera traps then, speculating the tigers might come out someday, and they did! The camera trap images were matched with the current ones and it was confirmed.

WTI RRT team patrolling | Photograph by Madhumay Mallik

Along with the forest department, our team installed camera traps everywhere – From the periphery of the village, along the route towards the forest, to inside the forest. It wasn’t long before we got the answers. Every night, another huge male tiger was captured in the camera traps installed inside the forest, and we observed the female exiting the area with her four cubs. We speculated that she was simply protecting the lives of her cubs from the other males by encouraging  them to disperse outside the forest area. This situation was causing the entire  issue of human-tiger conflict.

Over the last year, we’ve observed that it was a sub-adult tiger that had “strayed” into human habitation. These are the new generation of tigers, the ones that could not accommodate themselves in the forest anymore due existing high density inside. This “Generation Z” of tigers is breaking the norm and are now coming out of the wilderness, moving closer to human habitation.

The mother of five was able to nurture her complete litter and raise them into healthy individuals. It is, however, going to be interesting to know, how these tigers stand against these odds in the not so distant future and also how humans address  this burning issue.

Pranjali is our field biologist engaged with the Terai Tiger Project, in collaboration with DoEFCC (Uttar Pradesh), the US Fish and Wildlife Services and Chester Zoo.