Tiger kills man in Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve's Dhikala zone

The incident occurred on Thursday morning (November 23), immediately after the morning safari, when all the Gypsys ferrying guests to the jungle rides came back. The victim has been identified as Ramu Kaka, a forest official on a contractual basis who was a regular fixture on the campus for the last many years.

The details of the incidents are still trickling in. But one can well imagine the scenario and the panic it would have triggered. The park opened to visitors on November 15 and the Dhikala zone has been bursting to the seam with tourists, photographers, and forest officials.

As the details start emerging at a snail’s pace – Dhikala, situated inside the forest with no cellphone connectivity – the officials, it’s learnt, are seriously contemplating removing tourists from the campus.

It’s learnt, however, that the victim’s body has been partly eaten. If this turns out to be true, then it’s not a case of accidental killing but of the kind where a tiger typically acts as a predator – by stalking and bringing down prey for eating. It is learnt that a male tiger was tranquilised from Dhikala in the late afternoon.

At present, quite a few sub-adult tigers and some cubs are being spotted in the grasslands surrounding the Dhikala campus. The needle of suspicion, however, falls on a particular male tiger who was relocated near the Paterpani region of the tiger reserve a few months ago. Paterpani, situated about eight kilometres away, is an easy walking distance for the healthy male.

To be fair to the wildlife, it’s the humans who have encroached upon their territory and such encounters do happen. A few years ago, the field director of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, S Manikandan, was trampled to death by an elephant inside the forest.

But the killing of a man at the Dhikala complex will have wide repercussions, not only in Corbett Park but also in many other states where tiger tourism has grown in leaps and bounds.