From wolves to tigers: rising man–animal conflict in Bahraich signals urgent need for a tougher, field-driven forest response
Man–animal conflict is not new to the forests and villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh. What is new—and deeply alarming—is the frequency, spread, and audacity with which wild animals are now entering human habitats.
Barely months after wolves terrorised villages in Bahraich, snatching infants from their mothers’ laps, a tiger has now turned its attention towards human settlements, bringing fear to the very edge of a high-security international border.
For the past two days, personnel from the Sashastra Seema Bal, the police, and the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department have been combing the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Rupaidiha and surrounding areas along the Indo–Nepal border in a tense hunt for an elusive tiger suspected of attacking three people in Bahraich district last week.
Tiger near high-security border zone triggers alarm
The situation escalated after fresh pugmarks were traced alarmingly close to the boundary wall of the ICP, a fortified 1.25-acre complex where immigration, customs, and security checks are conducted round the clock.
The presence of the big cat so close to a sensitive border installation—where SSB jawans and their families reside—rang serious alarm bells.
According to Ganga Singh, Commandant of the SSB at Rupaidiha, extensive combing operations were carried out within the ICP campus and surrounding areas.
Drones were also deployed by forest officials to scan the region, though the tiger has not yet been located.
Preliminary assessments suggest the animal may not have entered the ICP compound itself, but its proximity has been enough to trigger a full-scale alert.
Chief Conservator of Forests Anuradha Vemuri confirmed that camera traps have been installed across identified movement corridors to track the tiger’s location and behaviour.
A trail of attacks and human error
The tiger is suspected to be the same animal that was recently rescued from Sitapur and released into the Chakia forest range—raising questions about post-rescue monitoring and the suitability of release sites.
Last Wednesday, the animal attacked three people within a radius of just 400 metres in Pachpakri village.
Sixty-year-old Radhey Verma was critically injured and referred to Lucknow, while Sanjana (12) and Ankit (23) are being treated at a hospital in Bahraich.
Forest officials later revealed that the tiger attacked the minor when she reportedly approached the animal to photograph it—an incident that underlines both lack of awareness and the growing normalisation of wild animal presence near villages.
A region under siege by wildlife
Bahraich has become a flashpoint of human–wildlife confrontation. For nearly two years, wolf attacks claimed around 20 lives, most of them children.
In the nearby Chanaini village of Nawabganj block, a leopard injured two people, confirmed Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav. Earlier this month, a herd of wild elephants damaged a house and blocked a road for nearly an hour, triggering panic.
What was once considered sporadic has now turned into a pattern.
Officials step in, but questions remain.
Chief Conservator of Forests (Central Zone) Dr Renu Singh recently visited both wolf- and tiger-affected areas, issuing advisories to villagers to sleep indoors, monitor children closely, form village vigilance groups, and avoid provoking wild animals.
She also assured that financial assistance to affected families would be expedited and ordered intensified patrolling in tiger movement corridors around Rupaidiha.
Police Inspector Ganesh Tiwari of Rupaidiha Police Station confirmed that search operations remain ongoing but conceded that the tiger has not yet been traced despite intensive efforts.
The Uttar Pradesh government has announced enhanced safety measures, including chain-link fencing and solar-powered electric fences along forest boundaries to prevent animals from straying into villages.
However, these measures remain uneven and reactive.
Time for a paradigm shift
Analysts and conservation experts argue that the real issue runs deeper than fencing and advisories.
The surge in man–animal conflict reflects shrinking forest habitats, poor post-rescue tracking, delayed response mechanisms, and an overburdened forest administration weighed down by paperwork rather than field presence.
It is increasingly evident that the Forest Department must pull up its socks and shift into what many describe as an “adventure mode”—less file movement, more boots-on-the-ground action.
Forest reserves in Africa and other parts of the world operate with rapid-response teams, real-time tracking, community-integrated surveillance, and empowered field officers who take swift decisions without bureaucratic lag.
India’s forest management, especially in high-conflict zones like Bahraich, needs a similar transformation—where prevention takes precedence over damage control, and where wildlife protection and human safety are treated as inseparable goals.
Until then, villages on the forest fringe will continue to live in fear, caught between the wilderness that is encroaching upon them and a system struggling to keep pace.
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