Lok Sabha Question No. 3952 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-01-04
Subject: Attack by Tigers
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: RAHUL KASWAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3952 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.01.2019

## Attack by Tigers

## 3952.  SHRI RAHUL KASWAN:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether incidents of attack by tigers on human beings have been reported during the last three years and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise including Rajasthan;
- (b) the compensation provided to the victims during the said period;
- (c) whether the Government has any proposal to ascertain the status of tigers through electronic monitoring;
- (d) if so, the details and the salient features thereof and the time by which the said mechanism is likely to be made operational; and
- (e) the measures taken or proposed to be taken in consultation with the State Governments for preventing conflict between human beings and wild animals?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (DR. MAHESH SHARMA)

- (a) As  reported  by  States,  number  of  people  killed  in  tiger  attacks  across  the  country during last three years and current year, is at Annexure-I .
- (b) As per guidelines under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, an amount of Rs. 2.00 lakh per person is provided to victims of tiger attack on request from the States.
- (c) & (d) No.  However, the Government of India has initiated an Android based application MSTrIPES (Monitoring system for Tigers'  Intensive Protection  and  Ecological  Status) which  is  a  data  collection  tool  for  patrolling  and  ecological  purposes,  which  when analyzed helps assess status of welfare factors which foster tiger survival.
- (e) The  National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority  has  a  three  pronged  strategy  to  prevent conflict between human beings and wild animals which is elaborated at Annexure-II.

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## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3952 ON ATTACK BY TIGERS DUE FOR REPLY ON 04.01.2019

## As reported by States, number of people killed in tiger attacks across the country during last three years and current year

|   S. No. | State             |   2015 |   2016 |   2017 |   2018 (As on 31.12.2018) |
|----------|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|---------------------------|
|        1 | Andhra Pradesh    |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        2 | Arunachal Pradesh |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        3 | Assam             |      0 |      1 |      1 |                         1 |
|        4 | Bihar             |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        5 | Chhattisgarh      |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        6 | Delhi             |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        7 | Jharkhand         |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        8 | Karnataka         |      1 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|        9 | Kerala            |      3 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|       10 | Madhya Pradesh    |      6 |      6 |      4 |                         0 |
|       11 | Maharashtra       |      6 |     16 |     24 |                        15 |
|       12 | Mizoram           |      0 |      0 |      1 |                         0 |
|       13 | Nagaland          |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|       14 | Odisha            |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         2 |
|       15 | Rajasthan         |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         1 |
|       16 | Tamil Nadu        |      1 |      1 |      0 |                         0 |
|       17 | Telangana         |      0 |      0 |      0 |                         0 |
|       18 | Uttar Pradesh     |      0 |      5 |     12 |                         4 |
|       19 | Uttarakhand       |      1 |      2 |      2 |                         3 |
|       20 | West Bengal       |      0 |     15 |      2 |                         1 |

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## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (e) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3952 ON ATTACK BY TIGERS DUE FOR REPLY ON 04.01.2019

## National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority  has  a  multi-pronged  strategy  to  deal  with  humanwildlife (tiger) conflict

- (i) Material  and  logistical  support: Funding  support through the ongoing  Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, is provided to tiger reserves for acquiring capacity in terms  of  infrastructure  and  material,  to  deal  with  tigers  dispersing  out  of  source  areas. These are solicited by tiger reserves through an  Annual Plan of Operation (APO) every year which stems out from an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated under Section 38 V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Inter alia, activities such as payment of  ex-gratia  and  compensation,  periodic  awareness  campaigns  to  sensitize,  guide  and advise the general populace on man-animal conflict, dissemination of information through various  forms  of  media,  procurement  of  immobilization  equipment,  drugs,  training  and capacity building of forest staff to deal with conflict events are generally solicited.
- (ii) Restricting  habitat  interventions :  Based  on  the  carrying  capacity  of  tigers  in  a  tiger reserve,  habitat  interventions  are  restricted  through  an  overarching  TCP.    In  case  tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, it is advised that habitat interventions should be limited  so  that  there  is  no  excessive  spill  over  of  wildlife  including  tigers  thereby minimizing  man-animal  conflict.    Further,  in  buffer  areas  around  tiger  reserves,  habitat interventions are restricted such that they are sub-optimal vis-à-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only.
- (iii) Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs): The National Tiger Conservation Authority has issued following three SOPs to deal with man-animal conflict which are available in public domain:
- i) To  deal  with  emergency  arising  due  to  straying  of  tigers  in  human  dominated landscapes
- ii) To deal with tiger depredation on livestock
- iii) For  active  management  towards  rehabilitation  of  tigers  from  source  areas  at  the landscape level.

The  three  SOPs inter  alia include the  issue  of  managing  dispersing  tigers, managing livestock kills so as to reduce conflict as well as relocating tigers from source areas to areas where density of tiger is low, so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.

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