Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans#Tiger Widows

The locals and government officials take certain precautions to prevent attacks. Local Hindu fishermen will say prayers and perform rituals to the forest goddess Bonbibi before setting out on expeditions. Invocations to the tiger god Dakshin Ray are also considered a necessity by the local populace for safe passage throughout the Sundarbans area. Fishermen and bushmen originally created masks made to look like faces to wear on the back of their heads because tigers always attack from behind. This worked for a short time, but the tigers quickly caught on to the ruse, and the attacks reportedly continued. One local honey gatherer, Surendra Jana, 57, summarised the general feeling of the tigers adapting to their efforts: "Before we could understand the way they attacked...We don't feel safe any more, knowing our brothers have been attacked in spite of the tricks we use."{{cite news |date=13 February 2012 |title=The tiger widows of the Sundarbans |url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/the-tiger-widows-of-the-sundarbans |newspaper=The National |agency=Abu Dhabi Media}} Government officials wear stiff pads that rise up the back of the neck, similar to the pads of an American football player. This is to prevent the tigers from biting into the spine, which is their favoured attack method.{{Cite episode |title=The Last Maneater: Killer Tigers of India |series=Nat Geo WILD |series-link=Nat Geo Wild |first=Larry |last=Bambrick |network=National Geographic Channel |date=2003 }}

Between 35,000{{Cite journal |last1=Chowdhury |first1=Arabinda N. |last2=Brahma |first2=Arabinda |last3=Mondal |first3=Ranajit |last4=Biswas |first4=Mrinal K. |date=2016 |title=Stigma of tiger attack: Study of tiger-widows from Sundarban Delta, India |journal=Indian Journal of Psychiatry |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=12–19 |doi=10.4103/0019-5545.174355 |issn=0019-5545 |pmc=4776575 |pmid=26985099 |doi-access=free}} and 140,000{{Cite web |date=2021-11-10 |title=A 'Licence' to Kill in the Sundarbans |url=https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/licence-kill-sundarbans |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=The India Forum |language=en}} workers frequent the swamps and waterways of the Sundarbans. Fishing boats traverse the area and many stop to collect firewood, honey and other items. In the dark forest, tigers find it easy to stalk and attack men absorbed in their work. Even fishermen in small boats have been attacked due to tigers' strong swimming abilities.{{cite web |url=http://www.nhm.org/cats/P19/index.htm |title=Cats! Wild to Mild: MAN-EATER? |website=Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715120312/http://www.nhm.org/cats/P19/index.htm |archive-date=15 July 2007}}

Local villagers, who fear tiger attacks and resent the animal for killing their livestock, sometimes engage in revenge killings. On one occasion, a tiger had attacked and wounded the people in a village in south-west Bangladesh (near the Sundarbans) and frequently preyed upon their livestock. This roused the wrath of the villagers, and the feline became a target for their retribution. Poachers are also responsible for killing tigers in the reserve in an effort to sell them on the black market.{{cite news |date=29 May 2003 |title=Villagers beat tiger to death |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2947758.stm |access-date=25 May 2010 |work=BBC News}}

The human death rate has dropped significantly due to better management techniques and fewer people are killed each year. Even at the rate of fifty or sixty kills per year, humans would provide only about three percent of the yearly food requirements for the tiger population of the Sundarbans. Thus, humans are only a supplement to the tiger's diet; they do not provide a primary food source.{{cite web |title=The tiger and lion, attacks on humans |url=http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/maneating3.html |website=Man-eaters}}{{self-published source|date=November 2015}} This does not mean that the notoriety associated with this area is unfounded. Even if only 3% of a tiger's diet is human meat, that still amounts to the tiger killing and eating about one person per year, given the amount of food a tiger typically eats.{{cite book |last=Nowak |first=Ronald M. |url=https://archive.org/details/walkersmammalsof0002nowa |title=Walker's mammals of the world |date=1999 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0-8018-5789-9 |edition=6th |location=Baltimore |url-access=registration}}

In the Sundarbans, there are over 3,000 women whose husbands have been killed by tigers.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-30 |title=Counting Tigers, Discounting Victims of Tiger Attacks |url=https://www.theindiaforum.in/environment/counting-tigers-discounting-victims-tiger-attacks |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The India Forum |language=en}} Most of these so-called "tiger widows" face social stigma, legal challenges, and financial hardship.

Sundarban islanders frequently shun tiger widows as swami khejos ('husband eaters' in Bengali).{{Cite web |title=Tiger widows of the Sundarbans: how religion and myth stigmatise human-wildlife conflict {{!}} Feature from King's College London |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/tiger-widows-of-the-sundarbans-how-religion-and-myth-stigmatise-human-wildlife-conflict#:~:text=Women%20who%20lose%20their%20husbands,agriculture,%20fishing%20and%20crab%20collection. |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=www.kcl.ac.uk |language=en-GB}} The belief that tiger widows are bad omens is derived from the religious text, The Miracles of Bonbibi, considered sacred by both Hindus and Muslims in the Sundarbans. In the text, Bonbibi, the spirit guardian of the wilderness, declared that anyone who stole from the forest out of greed would not be rescued if they were attacked by a tiger. This story led to the superstition that tiger attacks can be avoided by the penitence and austerity of a woker's wife back home. If the man is killed, it is viewed as divine punishment for the sins of the wife. Some believe the widows are actually devils.{{Citation |title=Roughing it with Kali: Braving Crocodiles, Relatives and the Bhadralok |date=2014-06-03 |work=Forest of Tigers |pages=127–163 |url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203085516-12 |access-date=2025-04-01 |publisher=Routledge India |doi=10.4324/9780203085516-12 |doi-broken-date=1 April 2025 |isbn=978-0-203-08551-6|url-access=subscription }} Others call them witches.{{Cite news |last=AFP |date=2020-02-21 |title='Tiger widows' shunned as bad luck in rural Bangladesh |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1862754/tiger-widows-shunned-as-bad-luck-in-rural-bangladesh |access-date=2025-04-01 |work=Bangkok Post |language=en}}

After the death of her husband, it is common for a tiger widow to be pushed out of the household by her in-laws, who have the authority to keep any of her male children. Religious leaders prohibit the tiger widows from spiritual activities,{{Cite web |last=Murdock |first=Heather |title=Tiger Widows: The battle for survival amid climate change in the Indian Sundarbans |url=https://projects.voanews.com/tiger-widows/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Voice of America |language=en}} including their own husbands' funerals.{{Cite web |last=Thaslima |first=Begum |date=29 March 2016 |title=Tale of the tigers: Conservation's human cost |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Tale-of-the-tigers-Conservation-s-human-cost-7213367.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201033839/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Tale-of-the-tigers-Conservation-s-human-cost-7213367.php |archive-date=1 Dec 2021 |access-date= |website=The Houston Chronicle}} One widow, Lolita Biswas, stated:

It’s terribly painful. I am so isolated. When I hear people speak about me, I go back home and cry alone. I am not allowed to show my face at religious occasions. So I prefer not to go anywhere. I take long walks instead, alone.

To combat the economic difficulties suffered by the tiger widows, the forest department of West Bengal in 2021 stipulated that any death due to a wild animal is eligible for a compensation of Rs. 500,000. Yet the families of victims rarely receive any form of payment. To apply for compensation, the forest department requires widows to produce a series of documents, including a post-mortem report, a death certificate, and a police report.

Post-mortem reports are unavailable if the woman cannot retrieve her husband's corpse, which is commonly carried off by the tiger. Without a post-mortem, death certificates will not list the cause of death as a tiger attack. Death certificates are also impossible to obtain without a police report, which are not always requested by the families of victims. Most attacks on fishermen go unreported to the police out of fear of punishment.{{Cite web |last=Sinha |first=Dipanjan |date=2021-02-18 |title=Tigers Killed Their Husbands. Then The Storms Came. |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/tigers-killed-their-husbands-then-the-storms-came/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=VICE |language=en-US}} About 75% of workers who enter the mangroves do so without the necessary legal permits,{{Cite web |last=Sinha |first=Dipanjan |date=2021-02-18 |title=Tigers Killed Their Husbands. Then The Storms Came. |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/tigers-killed-their-husbands-then-the-storms-came/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=VICE |language=en-US}} which is considered a criminal offense.{{Cite web |title=Frequent tiger, crocodile attacks in Sundarbans villages |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/science/frequent-tiger-crocodile-attacks-sundarbans-2569778 |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Deccan Herald |language=en}} The cost of acquiring the required permits can run high, as much as $600–700 USD. Meanwhile, the per capita income in the region is only 0.5 USD a day.{{Cite journal |last1=Marcinko |first1=Charlotte L. J. |last2=Samanta |first2=Sourav |last3=Basu |first3=Oindrila |last4=Harfoot |first4=Andy |last5=Hornby |first5=Duncan D. |last6=Hutton |first6=Craig W. |last7=Pal |first7=Sudipa |last8=Watmough |first8=Gary R. |date=2022-07-01 |title=Earth observation and geospatial data can predict the relative distribution of village level poverty in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, India |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479722005230 |journal=Journal of Environmental Management |volume=313 |pages=114950 |doi=10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114950 |pmid=35378347 |bibcode=2022JEnvM.31314950M |issn=0301-4797|hdl=20.500.11820/34401e06-93b3-4385-bf37-57739aba55cb |hdl-access=free }}

Even when a widow can produce her late husband's permits, police departments remain reluctant to issue reports on tiger attacks.

Under to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, the family of a victim is entitled to payment through the fisheries department if the victim possessed a fisherman's identity card. However, illiteracy prevents many widows from finishing the application forms. Of 65 tiger widows surveyed in one study, only three could read.

In the past, private companies have offered life insurance for tiger attacks, but claims made by the beneficiaries have never been approved. Rather than disbursing the funds, the private insurers proclaimed it was their policy to wait until the forest department confirmed the victim met all the requirements for state compensation.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite magazine |last=Alexander |first=Caroline |date=21 April 2008 |title=Tigerland: A journey through the mangrove forest of Bengal |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_alexander |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=26 January 2010}}
• {{cite book |last=Ghosh |first=Amitav |author-link=Amitav Ghosh |date=2005 |title=The Hungry Tide |location=New Delhi |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers India |isbn=0-00-714178-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Jalais|first=Annu|title=Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XIW3AwAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-19869-4}}

{{South 24 Parganas topics}}

Category:Felidae attacks

Category:Tigers in India

Category:Sundarbans