If a human comes too close and surprises a sleeping or a feeding
tiger (particularly if it is a tigress with cubs), the tiger may attack
and kill a human. Tigers can also attack humans in a case of "mistaken
identity" (for example, if a human is crouching while collecting
firewood, or cutting grass) and sometimes when a tourist gets too close.
Some also recommend not riding a bicycle, or running in a region where
tigers live in order to not provoke their chase. Peter Byrne wrote about
an Indian postman who was working on foot for many years without any
problems with resident tigers, but was chased by a tiger soon after he
started riding a bicycle for his work.
In some cases tigers will change their natural diet to become
man-eaters. This is usually due to a tiger being incapacitated by a
gunshot wound or porcupine
quills, or some other factors, such as health issues and disabilities.
In such cases, the animal's inability to take traditional prey forces it
to stalk humans, which are less appetizing but much easier to chase,
overpower and kill; this was the case with the infamous man-eating tigress of Champawat,
which was believed to have begun eating villagers at least partially in
response to crippling tooth injuries. As tigers in Asia often live in
close proximity to humans, tigers have killed more people than any other
big cat. Between 1876 and 1912, tigers killed 33,247 people in British India.
Man-eaters have been a recurrent problem for India, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal. There, some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans. Even though tigers usually avoid elephants, they have been known to jump on an elephant's back and severely injure the mahout
riding on the elephant's back. Kesri Singh mentioned a case when a
fatally wounded tiger attacked and killed the hunter who wounded it
while the hunter was on the back of an elephant. Most man-eating tigers
are eventually captured, shot or poisoned.
During war, tigers may acquire a taste for human flesh from the
consumption of corpses which have lain unburied, and go on to attack
soldiers; this happened during the Vietnam and Second World Wars.[5]
Tigers will stalk groups of people bending down while working in a
field or cutting grass, but will lose interest as soon as the people
stand upright. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that some attacks
are a simple case of mistaken identity.
Tigers typically surprise victims from the side or from behind:
either approaching upwind or lying in wait downwind. Tigers rarely press
an attack if they are seen before their ambush is mounted.
Kenneth Anderson once commented on man-eating tigers;
"It is extraordinary how very cautious every man-eater becomes by practice, whether a tiger or panther, and cowardly too. Invariably, it will only attack a solitary person, and that too, after prolonged and painstaking stalking, having assured itself that no other human being is in the immediate vicinity... These animals seem also to possess an astute sixth sense and be able to differentiate between an unarmed human being and an armed man deliberately pursuing them, for in most cases, only when cornered will they venture to attack the latter, while they go out of their way to stalk and attack the unarmed man.
Tigers are sometimes intimidated from attacking humans, especially if
they are unfamiliar with people. Unlike man-eating leopards, even
established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements,
usually sticking to village outskirts.[5] Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur.
Most tigers will only attack a human if they cannot physically
satisfy their needs otherwise. Tigers are typically wary of humans and
usually show no preference for human meat. Although humans are
relatively easy prey, they are not a desired source of food. Thus, most
man-eating tigers are old, infirm, or have missing teeth, and choose
human victims out of desperation. In one case, a post-mortem examination
of a killed tigress revealed two broken canine teeth, four missing incisors and a loose upper molar,
handicaps which would make capturing stronger prey extremely difficult.
Only upon reaching this stage did she attack a workman.
In some cases, rather than being predatory, tiger attacks on humans
seem to be territorial in nature. In at least one case, a tigress with
cubs killed eight people entering her territory without consuming them
at all.
Article Source : Wikipedia
Article Source : Wikipedia
