The discovery of three dead tiger cubs in the Wayanad landscape of the Western Ghats in Kerala is bound to sharpen calls for a sustainable solution to the growing issue of man-animal conflict. One of the dead tigers was found in a plantation, while the other two were discovered in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary area, where tigers enjoy full protection. A proper scientific inquiry is needed to establish the cause, but the initial official explanation is that the cubs possibly perished in an attack by a male tiger. Given India’s pre-eminent position as a country with the most wild tigers, any loss of tigers is taken seriously by the Union and State governments. Large budgets are devoted annually to increasing their population in the wild. The Western Ghats are mostly forested, spanning 1,600 km along the coast, and their globally-acclaimed biodiversity has to coexist with dense human populations, especially in Kerala. As economic activity expands, human-animal conflict has become common, and Wayanad is ground zero in this crisis. As recently as January, a woman was fatally attacked in an estate in Pancharakolly, provoking protests and calls from local communities for aggressive measures to remove the big cats, if necessary, through culls. Human lives and livestock are at risk across the region, and 915 people have died in conflicts with animals in Kerala in the past eight years. Calls for a containment strategy, therefore, receive strong........

© Free Press Journal