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Man-eater on the prowl

Sharier Khan
Sundarbans lovers beware unless you're not scared of a tryst with a man-eater! A tiger is on a recordbreaking killing spree.
Between January and May, this off-track tiger has killed 32 people and injured many more in Dingimari area of Satkhira district. It had another 27 scalps last year.
Fifteen honey collectors, leaves collector, fishermen, woodcutters, a forest bandit and a forest officer feature among its kills.
But the hair-raising tales of the tiger's unusual hunting habit, however, hardly daunt the poor people of the locality to venture into the forest, as its the only source of their livelihood, says tiger tracker Khasru Chowdhury.
"It needs to be killed," points out Khasru who reports that during his stay in Dingimari area between April 30 and May 28, this tiger killed
seven people. "The normal activity of this forest is being disrupted and soon men will turn up against the tigers if this killing goes on," warns a worried Khasru.
"Maybe it's more than one tiger. But so far I found evidence of one male medium-sized tiger that has become terribly addicted to human flesh," Khasru points out. "Attacks are being reported every week. This tiger attacked a man earlier this week but he survived."
The guardian of the Sundarbans, the Forest Department, acknowledges the killings, but says it has not taken any initiative. The chief conservator has the power to give such a man-eating tiger death sentence which is executable in 15 days.
"We are not sure which tiger is repeatedly killing humans," says Rezaul Karim, deputy conservator. "We don't want to kill a wrong tiger. After all, tiger being killed is a sensitive issue."
Ali Kabir Haider, conservator of Khulna range forest, says from this month the government has introduced an insurance system for each legal visitor of the forest under which Tk 25,000 will be given to the family of a victim of tiger attack.
Tigers killed 427 people between 1984 and 2001, according to forest department statistics given by Haider. Of them, 53 percent were fishermen, 15 percent woodcutters and 13 percent honey collectors.
The last big man-eater tiger killed 52 people. But those killings took place in five years' span between 1989 and 1994, whereas this new killer claimed 59 lives in less than 18 months. A woodcutter killed the previous man-eater by plunging his axe into its forehead when the tiger attacked him.
Some forest staff and professionals say the number of victims has increased with the growing number of trespassers.
The government increased the fee for entering the forest for honey collection or fishing two years ago and the measure saw a fall in the official number of visitors. The unofficial number kept rising though, as forest guards allow poor people to enter the forest for bribes.
Illegal logging has also increased with the patronage of some forest and security employees. Every day, these employees allow timber thieves to cut trees and then stage a 'timber recovery drive' in which no-one is arrested. And when the recovered timber is sold, the unscrupulous employees keep most of the sale proceeds with them, leaving little for the state coffers.
Forest officials in charge of Khulna range declined to comment on the racket.