While policy makers in Delhi were framing rules for the Scheduled Castes and Other Traditional Forest-Dwellers (recognition of forest rights) Act—also called Tribal Act that’s now ready to be implemented—and animal activists were lobbying for notification of tiger reserves, Karwa and other villagers understood little. What they understood was that tigers had to be protected; they are not yet asking if it has to be done at their cost. “We have encountered tigers several times. It has killed our cattle but hasn’t attacked us yet. We understand it has the right to be here and all of us have to live together. But what should we do if it starts attacking us,” asked Namdeo Ade, another villager.

The tiger population in this fledgling tiger reserve has grown substantially over the last 10 years. The reserve has 41 tigers and the 800-sq-km adjoining forest has at least 22. But that has also meant that the big cats are increasingly straying over to adjoining forests and villages. It is one of the scores of villages where the strict legal wildlife laws apply. “We have been facing several restrictions since the tiger reserve came up in 1995. People who come to our village have to cross the reserve and they have to do so between 7 and 11 in the morning or between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. We don’t get to host guests and relatives,” complained Sukru Masram, a youngster.

Much before experts coined terms like ‘human-tiger conflict’ and ‘peaceful coexistence’, these were a way of life for villagers in Karwa. “The tiger is safe here because of us. Else, poachers would have come and killed them long back,” said Ade.

... contd.