Just behind the pulsating fields, on the edge of the jungle in the village of Chargaon, there is a silence in the air – not peace, but memory. On May 10, Vandana Gazbhiye, 50 years old, daily earnings, rested after collecting Tendta (Indian ebony leaves) near the Maharashtra forest area, about 3 km from her village in Chandrapur district. It was 9:30 am and the rain thickened the undergrowth.
Suddenly the tiger jumped on her. “I still can’t overcome it; I could die,” says Gazbhiy, who wears a scarf to hide her baldness. The injury from the tiger attack led to her shaving the rest of her hair. “I’m afraid to get off now,” he adds. Chargaon is in the Brahmapuri division in the Chandrapur forest circle. It is closed for tourism, but visited the tigers.
Forest Circle Chandrapur, which exceeds over 4,081 km. Km., Is home to 347 tigers, since 191 in 2020, according to data on the Department of Forest Forest in Chandrapur. Despite Chandrapur, the Ministry of Vulnerable 166 villages on three forest divisions: Bramhapuri, Central Chanda and Chandrapur. Another 106 is in Tiger Reserve Tadoba Andhari (Tatr), part of the Chandrapur Forest Circle, with one village in the main area and the rest in the bumper. In these areas, people have lived in fear of attacking over the past three to four years.
A month after the attack, Gazbhiye is still in pain and headache. “I wish I never had to go into the jungle, but poverty forces you,” he says, adding that she survived, because one of the tiger claws to tear into the leaf she wore on her back.
Biologist Rrakesh Arara, who works in Tatr, says the male tiger requires a minimum domestic range of 40 km; Today, at least four tigers share this space. The forest area remained the same, but was fragmented by urbanization: the highway and the expanding villages cut off the tigers from the prey. Farmers, Tenda Collectors Leaf and Mahua, Gurakhi (Shepherd Community) and those who work for the forest department in the jungle are most affected by the conflict of human and wild life.
During the first six months of 2025, up to 22 people came and 183 people were injured in the conflict of man-from Tistina, according to the forest department. In 2024, they say that 27 people died and 165 people were injured, while 929 people were injured in the last four and a half years.
The rituals of death and tigers
On the same day that Gazbhiye was attacked, there were three women from the village of Mendha (Mal), 4 km from Chargaon, in the attack by the same tiger, later identified as the T-81, according to the forest department. One of the deceased was Sarika Shende. Her son, Dheeraj Shende, 25, says, “We live with tigers like people live with dogs. They’re everywhere. I saw a tiger this morning.” In the Sarika house in Mendha (MAL), where her photograph is hung on the pink wall, her younger son Atish Shinde, 22, says he saw several brands of pugs in the area his mother was killed.
Officials documented the incident after the attack and created a committee for approval to capture the T-81 Tiger and its young, who were then caught and sent to the Gorewad Zoo in Nagpur, Mahashtraho’s third largest city, about 140 km away. “The tigers involved in the conflict will end up in the zoo because they are not accepting any reserve or national park,” says the veterinary officer (Wildlife) and the head of the Rych Rescue Team, Dr. Ravikant S. Khobragade. “Tigress kills more for protecting themselves and their pups rather than attacking people. But it is aggressive and its young are naive and curious,” he adds.
In the last 12 years, the forest department has captured 94 tigers, with 41 found in conflict situations. Among them are 17 women, 11 are subadults and the rest are male tigers. “Only 36 out of 94 was moved to nature, while 58 ended up in the zoo,” according to a study conducted by Khobragade.
Sarpanch Mendha (MAL), Sradha Gurnule, 26, raises concerns about these incidents with a forest department. She asked for the guards to go along with the band Plucker. Gurnule recalls, “Despite his proximity to the forest, the tigers in the village were a rare look only a few years ago. For the first time, someone was attacked in this village.”
Shradha Gurnule, Sarpanch of Mendha (MAL), raised concerns about the forest department about the attacks of tigers on the villagers. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Somewhere between Chargaon and Mendha (MAL) in the Sindewahi block, on the side of the main road, the boys are installed under the Czech Barbies. They depict the local ritual practiced after relatives people die in the attack of tigers. For Sarika, who had 50 when she died, there are three idols and her friends. This ritual is sometimes observed so that the deceased rest in peace. “This is also for the peace of the village,” says Sarika Dheraj’s son. Many believe that the death of the tiger has to do with the previous life of man.
Problem tigers and people
Maninikand Ramanujam, the main conservator of the forests in Chandrapur, says: “The forest department works on a war basis to prevent the conflict of human and tist.
Forest officer in Chandrapur says that in five years the conflict will only increase if the appropriate steps are taken. “Previously, attacks have become mostly in the summer, but now they have spread to the whole year,” he says. Currently, the Brahmapuri division hosts the highest number of pups for 67; Sub-Durate at the age of 16; and women at 39.
Forest department officials believe that most of the attacks are in women’s tigers and their subordinates (between 1.5 and 2.5 years), which are pushed to live on the forest borders for territorial fights, mostly among men, but sometimes among women.
“The problem lies in the bumper zone (Tatr) and territorial areas (three chandrapur zones not part of the Tatrum), where the food is low and the competition between tigers is high because of urbanization and soil fragmentation,” says Suresh Chopane, president of the non -profit company Planet Society. He is also a former member of the regional authorized committee of the Ministry of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change and served in the Tadoba Tigers’ Tigers.
The forest department says that it installed 982 cameras traps through a circle for supervision and real -time monitoring is carried out using Stealth Cameras cameras to alert villagers. It is also said that 181 teams have primary reactions with 917 members, while common patrols are carried out to prevent tigers and wild animals in electricity. “We also draw attention to the villagers about places where tigers are frequent,” says Kushagra Pathak, forest officer responsible for the Tatr (buffer).
A living and conflict
In the monsoon, Chandrapur’s forest is stronger than usual on both sides of the road that leads from the Sindewahi block to the MUL block, 30 km away. In Chitegaon – the village of 1200 people, most farmers – a tiger called TF3 killed Sheshraj Nagose, 32 years, son of an unpeeled farmer Panddurang Nagose, 65.
Outside his house, where his hens wandered, Panddurang shows a photo of his son on his mobile phone taken after an attack. “We are limited to our homes. We can’t walk, travel alone at night or go to our farms for routine work. To allow children to travel to school scary,” he says.
Maruti Karanshya, a surviving tiger attack, in his house in Maregaon in Chandrapur. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
After Seshraj’s death, his wife received a daily wage in Rajoli Forest Depot and received a monthly wage of 14,000 GBP, while the family was provided with 25 lakh compensation. Chitegaon villagers want high fences on all farms, because tigers usually attack when people either bend or sit.
However, the villagers complain that they are also afraid of attacking their cattle. “Buying cattle is expensive and we face huge losses if the tigers take them, even if there is compensation,” says Mirabai Uikye, 70, who says she has lost several animals, including the recent hen. According to data, 3,416 cattle were killed from January 2024 to June 2025.
In another village, 2 km from Chitegaon, Maregaon, where the 26th June was injured by the farmer Maruti Karnshya, 25 years. “They live in a high -risk area.
Khobragade admits: “We will not achieve in some areas, but government policy is trying to strengthen health services.”
Pathak says: “One of the biggest challenges is that people do not listen to them, even though they give them safety instructions. But next year we will not open an offer for areas that have more victims and tigers’ movement.”
Tourism has grown tigers
In the Tatrum, Tadoba visits around 3.5 to 4 Lakh every month, says the forest department. Although tiger tourism creates local jobs, it also has a negative impact on the locals, as excessive tourism can disrupt the natural behavior of tigers.
Former member of the State Council for the Wilderness of Yadav Tarte Patil says: “Tigers have become accustomed to people. If Tigress with four chicks sees hundreds of people, fear disappears. Fear is one of the key elements for coexistence.”
However, Tatr’s officials claim that tourism will reduce people’s dependence on the forest. Currently, many villagers are dependent on forest productions such as Tenda and Mahua.
View of Tiger Reserve Tadoba Andhari near Chandrapur. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Forest Officer Pathak says: “The Tatr has 17 gates that require guards; then there are drivers, cleaning staff and many indirect employment options. We employ thousands of people and at least 600 to prevent poaching.”
Chopane recommends that tourists should not be allowed to mate, at the site of the attack and resting places sub-administered. In the long run, he would say that the forest department should work to maintain fragmented forests to form underparts for animals.
The villagers asked for a shift of tigers that the veterinarian ruled out because the tigers can be emphasized because of the new geographical area. In addition, Mahashtra has shortcomings in mapping tigers, which could probably help with relocation, he says. “Sterilization disrupts the ecosystem, so we have to experiment with the reverse population, causing 1.5 years of reproduction delay,” says Khobragade.
He says that the establishment of rewilding centers in Chandrapur to rehabilitate pups captured in the conflict of man-right is a good idea. “The young in zoos deserve a chance to be in the wild and survive,” he adds.
snehal.mutha@thehind.co.in
Edit Sunalini Mathew
