What Retaliatory Killings Are Really Doing To Tigers

How Are Retaliatory Killings Affect The Overall Number Of Wild Tigers?

From collecting various facts from a multitude of information resources, the amount of tigers being killed every year is approximately 200-250. This is of course due to a number of things, but retaliatory killings are also a part of this approximate number. However, statistics that counteract this make it seem as though losing this many tigers a year to be little and insignificant. For instance, approximately 1200 to 1500 livestock animals are killed by wild tigers every year.

Retaliatory killings are also a big factor affecting the wild tiger population. These killings have come about in recent years due to the increase in the human population, and the decrease in habitat space/land for wild tigers. As a result of this, people and tigers are having conflicts which emerge in severe injuries and even death for both. The main reason why people are hurting these tigers is because of tigers having to hunt elsewhere, which has forced them to begin preying on livestock, which in turn upsets the owners of said livestock. This results in them killing the tiger in retaliation. This reactionary response from humans has resulted in human-wildlife conflict, and thus affected the wild population in and around the area. These killings occur globally, not just in one section of the world, and affect multiple species - not just tigers - moreover, these killings will only occur depending on the proximity of the humans to the tiger’s natural habitat, and vice versa.

The image on the left shows the probability of someone running into a wild tiger. This research showed that approximately 85% of all conflicts between tigers and humans occur ‘when people venture into the forest - entering the territory of wildlife’. The Living with Tigers initiative focuses on local communities reducing their need to enter the forest, for instance, by providing them with sources of biogas fuel, creating jobs via the use of ‘sustainable bamboo shops, or building toilets etc.’

How Are Retaliatory Killings Affecting The Overall Number Of Wild Tiger Populations?

Retaliatory killings are affecting tigers just as much as illegal poaching and climate change. Things such as baited carcasses are just one of the many ways farmers and others will use to kill a wild tiger that has affected their livestock. Baited carcasses are dead animals that contain poison - added by the human - and when the tiger goes back to eat its prey, it gets poisoned and eventually dies. The farmers have no remorse for doing this and any other form of killing tigers as they see them more as ‘pests’ than an endangered big cat, protected by CITES. These tigers are then sold illegally for a large sum of money, on the black market. Illegal killings are resulting in more tiger deaths than ever before, which is why tiger numbers are plummeting drastically.

How Can We Overcome This?

There are conservation projects and specially dedicated reserves that are helping to reduce the amount of tigers killed over lost livestock. For instance, the IRS (Corbett Tiger Reserve) has managed to reduce retaliatory killings to zero in the last 4 years, preserving the tigers within the area. Reserves such as these should be made and implemented wherever possible, because what the IRS has shown is that with dedicated efforts to reduce threats to tigers, the wild tiger population can begin to grow and expand again. In addition to this, there is a way to increase the impact of conservation projects - for example, compensation schemes in and around a protected area like the Corbett and Dudhwa Tiger Reserves in India, which will help them to keep an eye on the wild tiger population.

There are 5 easy ways to improve wild tiger numbers;

1. Creating programmes that are aimed at improving communities livelihood - and provide them with ‘clear incentives’ - can inform them on how they can support conservation, and also find peaceful ways to live alongside the wildlife in their area.

2. Programmes should also be made to raise awareness for big cat reserves in and around Asia and Russia. These will allow local communities to know how they can support themselves and the surrounding residents e.g wildlife and other people.

3. Improve the quantity and quality of tiger habitats as well as the availability of their prey species via the use of different programmes.

4. Allowing compensation fees for loss of livestock, as well as insurance, will reduce the amount of people who will retaliate by killing a tiger for money. It will also improve the protection of livestock.

5. Relocating tigers to an area that is not inhabited by humans, therefore meaning there will be less human activity.