For the past two months, villagers around several tiger reserves in the country have been living in terror. From December 2013 to the end of January this year, at least 18 people have been killed by tigers in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, and there is fear that a growing number of tigers could be turning into man-eaters.



Eight of these deaths occurred in the districts surrounding Jim Corbett National Park, where officials are now on the hunt for the stray tigress believed to be responsible for all the attacks. On January 22, a tiger from Tamil Nadu’s Doddabetta forest was shot dead by Special Task Force officials after it killed three local women in three weeks. Tigers have also killed five villagers around sanctuaries in Karnataka, and at least two in Maharashtra.



In a case of cruel irony, these human casualties seem to be a result of India’s success in the conservation of the endangered wildcat. The country’s tiger population rose from 1,411 in 2008 to 1,706 in 2011, and a large number of sanctuaries are now housing more tigers than they can hold. With tiger reserves saturated, animals are venturing into unprotected forest areas outside, where human encroachments have been rife.



The tiger population in India saw a 20% increase from 2006 to 2010, but in the same period, there was a notable 12.5% decline in forest cover outside of protected national parks, according to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) records. These forested areas typically serve as habitats for tigers that wander out of sanctuaries.



“The pressure of human development on these habitats is a big problem,” said SP Yadav, deputy inspector general at the NTCA. Yadav believes a growing tiger population is just one reason for an animal to go beyond a protected reserve. “Tigers are territorial creatures so it is natural for young tigers – or old ones who have been pushed out – to seek new territories, and in the process have chance encounters with humans,” he said.



The problem is compounded by the fact that forested corridors connecting different reserves are now growing sparse and interrupted. “These intervening forest areas have degraded tremendously in the past few years, with humans cutting down trees and hunting other animals that could have served as tiger prey,” said Anish Andheria, president of the Mumbai-based non-profit Wildlife Conservation Trust.



With shrinking habitats and a lack of prey, tigers end up targeting cattle, which eventually leads to man-animal conflicts. “But cattle and humans are not a tiger’s natural food. No tiger is born a man-eater,” said Andheria.



To deal with the current crisis, the NTCA has issued detailed guidelines for local populations on how to deal with tiger encounters and prevent attacks. If the offending tigers are caught, they will either be tranquilised and released in the wild or, in case they are too old, they will be transferred to a zoo. But some experts believe it is time to reconsider the policy of boosting India’s tiger population.



“It is very important for us to now work out the optimal number of tigers that each reserve can hold, instead of holding on to fancy ideas of doubling the tiger population,” said K Ramesh, a scientist at the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India. “We should then work towards preserving this optimal number.”



Andheria believes the government could provide LPG and biogas at subsidised rates to villagers around sensitive areas, as an incentive for not cutting down trees for fuel. “Most importantly, it is time that even non-protected forest areas get some amount of protection,” he said.