Usually, it is the state’s chief wildlife conservator who declares a tiger as man-eater. Former principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) RL Singh says, “Even if it is declared a man-eater, the first preference is to tranquilise the tiger and capture it. When attempts to tranquilise it fail, only then is the animal killed.”Preference is given to the field staff for the task of tranquilising or hunting down a man-eater tiger. These are usually retired officials of the forest department who have vast experience in dealing with such cases while in service. More importantly, the Wildlife Protection Act does not allow a tiger to be declared as man-eater even if more than one human is killed inside the reserve forest area.

Source: Hindustan Times August 23, 2016 03:00 UTC