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Who Is Killing the Tiger Panthera Tigris and Why?

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Who Is Killing the Tiger Panthera Tigris and Why? Who is killing the tiger Panthera tigris and why? S AMIA S AIF,H.M.TUIHEDUR R AHMAN and D OUGLAS C RAIG M ACM ILLAN Abstract We investigated the range of people involved in support these hunts (Chakraborthy, ). Described as killing tigers Panthera tigris in the Bangladesh low-caste individuals, who were looked down upon by Sundarbans, their motives and methods, and their links to other community members (Rangarajan, ; the commercial trade. Using snowball sampling we con- Chakraborthy, ), shikaris assumed a stronger identity ducted qualitative interviews with local people. We iden- in the days of the British Raj, establishing a strong social tified five categories (village residents, poachers, shikaris, bond with the British hunters (Sramek, ), not unlike trappers and pirates), each with different motives, methods the relationship observed on Scottish sporting estates be- and networks. Village residents kill tigers predominantly for tween the gentleman sportsman and his local highland ghil- safety, whereas others kill in the forest professionally or op- lie (MacMillan & Leitch, ; MacMillan & Phillip, ). portunistically. Poachers kill tigers for money, but for others During the British period shikaris were also hired to kill ti- the motives are more complex. The motives of local hunters gers in the Sundarbans because of the high number of are multifaceted, encompassing excitement, profit, and es- human fatalities caused by tigers (Rangarajan, ; teem and status arising from providing tiger parts for local Chakraborthy, ). medicine. Pirates kill tigers for profit and safety but also as a Poaching has been identified as a high-priority threat to protection service to the community. The emerging inter- the species in the region (Aziz et al., ) but although stud- national trade in tiger bones, introduced to the area by ies have explored tiger-killing behaviour in villages, human– non-local Bangladeshi traders, provides opportunities to tiger conflict and the link between local usage of tiger parts sell tiger parts in the commercial trade and is a motive for and tiger killing (Khan, ; Barlow et al., ; Inskip tiger killing across all groups. et al., , ; Saif et al., ), there has been no research on the range of people involved, their motives and methods, Keywords Bangladesh Sundarbans, Panthera tigris, poach- and their links to the commercial trade. Our aim is to estab- ing, qualitative research, tiger, traditional medicine, wildlife lish who is killing tigers, why and how, with a view to designing trade more effective conservation interventions that complement To view supplementary material for this article, please visit existing law-enforcement efforts. This type of study is rare https://doi.org/./S in the literature on tiger conservation but provides essential baseline information upon which an effective and sustainable tiger conservation strategy can be implemented. Introduction Study area he tiger Panthera tigris has declined across its range Tand now occurs in only countries. Poaching is a The Sundarbans is an extensive mangrove forest spanning major cause of this decline, driven by the demand for the border between Bangladesh and India. In Bangladesh tiger parts (Nowell, ). We focus on the problem of it covers an area of , km (Ahmad et al., ) and is tiger poaching in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, which was divided into four administrative ranges (Satkhira, Khulna, considered to be a stronghold for the species, with an esti- Chandpai and Sarankhola), which are surrounded by eight mated population of – individuals in (Ahmad subdistricts, known as upazilas (Fig. ). et al., ) but where there are now estimated to be only remaining (Dey et al., ). Methods For centuries social elites have killed tigers for sport in the Indian subcontinent (Rangarajan, ). Local hunters, Sampling strategy and interview approach known as shikaris, were employed as guides and trackers to We conducted semi-structured interviews with local people in the four administrative ranges during December – SAMIA SAIF* (Corresponding author) and DOUGLAS CRAIG MACMILLAN Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, June to gather information about tiger killing. We UK. E-mail [email protected] also conducted informal interviews with a researcher, two H.M. TUIHEDUR RAHMAN McGill University, Montreal, Canada journalists, a police officer and a lawyer. Questions were *Also at: WildTeam, Dhaka, Bangladesh mostly open-ended, giving respondents the opportunity to Received May . Revision requested July . discuss everything they felt was relevant, and interviews Accepted May . First published online October . continued until the data became saturated (Newing et al., Oryx, 2018, 52(1), 46–54 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316000491 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 26 Sep 2021 at 00:31:06, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000491 Who is killing the tiger and why? 47 FIG. 1 The locations of Village Tiger Response Teams and surrounding subdistricts (upazilas) in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. ). This approach has been used in other studies seeking ) or Aila (May ), which government was in power an in-depth understanding of wildlife killing (Pratt et al., or which grade their son or daughter was in at the time. To ; MacMillan & Han, ). Ethical approval was ob- persuade tiger killers to take part in the interview we agreed tained from the Zoological Society of London and the that participants could describe tiger killing events in the University of Kent. third person, without admitting their involvement in the In deciding our research strategy we considered several process. They were also assured before the interview that factors. Firstly, we considered it unrealistic to expect intervie- the source of their knowledge or experience of killing wees to answer truthfully any directly incriminating ques- would not be requested. tions about illegal wildlife killing for profit (Solomon et al., We did not request or record interviewees’ names or ad- ). Secondly, we were cognizant of the need to overcome dresses, and anonymity was assured. All interviews were any reservations they may have had about being questioned carried out in Bengali by SS to maintain consistency and about a sensitive subject by an urban, well-educated female trust. As some respondents felt uncomfortable about pro- Bangladeshi. We invested time (– days) in building trust viding personal information (e.g. their religion), we omitted with each respondent through social activities, teaching non-essential personal questions. To avoid any false or mis- their children and participating in their daily activities. We leading answers we did not provide direct financial incen- were confident that trust had been established when many tives to the interviewees (Gavin et al., ). Interviews interviewees showed us tiger parts they had obtained. were generally – hours in duration. Interviewees were of- To verify sensitive data, similar questions were asked in fered snacks during the interview; the interviews that lasted different ways during different phases of the interview. The . hours included breaks, and lunch or dinner was offered reliability of information obtained was assessed by asking as a traditional gesture. for details about timing and location; for example, whether We used purposive sampling, actively seeking members an event took place before or after cyclone Sidr (November of the village community with various levels and forms of Oryx, 2018, 52(1), 46–54 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316000491 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 26 Sep 2021 at 00:31:06, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000491 48 S. Saif et al. engagement with tiger killing, categorized as () members of non-forest-going people (n = ) or others (n = ), com- a Village Tiger Response Team, () general members of the prising people who had stopped going to the forest for safety community, and () tiger killers. Village Tiger Response reasons (n = ) or because of old age (n = ), and four forest Team members are unpaid volunteers from the community department staff. who help prevent tigers being killed if they enter a village. Established by the conservation NGO WildTeam, response Data analysis teams are located in areas where human–tiger conflict is prevalent (Fig. ). Team members are trained and experi- Data on poaching, killing, trade and other related issues enced in dealing with such conflict; they are also knowl- were coded and thematic models were developed to identify edgeable about village life and forest resource collection links between various components (Pratt et al., ). practices. Comparing the models and identifying the words used Initially we conducted meetings with the members of most often by the various groups (e.g. shikari, pirates, each team and explained the research and ethical issues in- poison, guns, recent demand, trader) facilitated the identifi- volved. We identified the most appropriate team members cation of emergent themes and issues. We used the for subsequent, more in-depth interviews (n = )based Institutional Analysis and Development framework for the on their knowledge and experience of wildlife poaching, structural presentation of the data (Ostrom
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