Tigers Prey on People | National Geographic

for more than 2500 years it has been an
icon of India today an estimated 2,000
of the big cats approximately half the
world’s tiger population live in India
alone their range stretches from
Pakistan to Burma and throughout most of
India but the largest population resides
in the Sunderbans National Park and
tiger reserve nearly eight thousand
square miles of densely forested River
Delta spanning the borders of India and
Bangladesh
roughly 250 cats dwell in this lush
landscape but on the Indian side in
particular the swamps lack an abundance
of the Tigers natural prey so the cats
often turn their attention toward the
easiest quarry people frequent the
Indian side of the park to collect wood
fish and honeycomb absorbed in their
chores they are easy targets for the
hungry and stealthy cats the attack is
so fast and fierce
virtually no one survives every year
Tigers kill 50 people and the Indians
under bonds alone making it home to the
highest number of tiger fatalities in
the country once locals took to wearing
masks on the backs of their heads to
discourage attacks they believed the
ruse would deter the cats as Tigers
rarely attack a person from the front
but now they fear the Tigers may have
caught on