It was Thursday noon, 5 June 2021.

Durga Tharu, 30, was searching for a vine in Gauri Community Forest to tie the sal leaves she had collected before returning home. She had come to the forest with nine other friends, all of whom had already finished packing the leaves and were waiting for her. Durga was rushing to finish the task so that they could all make it home early. 

She saw a vine a few meters ahead, and took a few steps out of her friends’ circle to grab it. No sooner had she moved, a Royal Bengal tiger pounced on her from nowhere. 

Durga fainted on the spot with fright.

"When I regained my senses, I found the tiger sitting on top of me, pressing on my hands and legs,” recalls Durga, adding, "I somehow managed to punch the tiger's nose with my right hand. It then got off  me and walked a few feet away."

Some of her friends ran away crying while some just froze on the spot due to fear. Durga recalls that she fainted for about 15 minutes. She has multiple scratches from the tiger around her hands and legs. While the tiger left her, it continued to stare at her from a distance. Having no other alternative, she held her breath for a while. Then, she slowly started to crawl backwards, widening the gap between her and the tiger. She then finally ran when she felt the distance was safe. 

Durga, a local from Rapti Sonari of Banke district, depends on the forest to take care of her family. “I have goats and other cattle. I have to go to the forest to bring them grass. I cannot make a living without going to the forest,”  said Durga, adding, "It was risky to go to the forest before also as tigers and leopards would attack people. But ever since my incident, I’m much more scared to step in the forest."

The local government provided Rs 10,000 for her treatment. That didn’t even cover her hospital bills. 

A day after Durga survived the tiger attack, Lila Bista from a neighboring village also got attacked. Lila was not so lucky. She was killed and half eaten by the tiger. When the police finally arrived at the attack scene, they had to open fire to chase away the tiger to collect what remained of Lila.

Locals say that incidents of wildlife attack on humans have increased since the country adopted protective conservation measures aimed at increasing the number of endangered wildlife. 

Nepal, which occupies about 0.1 percent of the global area, harbors 3.2 percent and 1.1 percent of the world’s known flora and fauna, respectively. It has 12 national parks, one wildlife reserve, one hunting reserve, six conservation areas and 13 buffer zones from high mountains to lowland Tarai. At a meeting of 13 Tiger Range Countries held in St. Petersburg of Russia in 2010, the then prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal pledged to double the tiger population. 

At that time, Nepal had 121 adult tigers. In 2013, that number rose to 198. Five years later, it increased to 235. Citing the recently concluded tiger census, officials estimate that the target of increasing tiger populations to 250 by the end of 2022 will be easily achieved.

The maximum number of tiger population has increased in the districts of Banke and Bardiya. As of 2022, 21 tigers in Banke and 86 in Bardiya have been recorded. 

A new national park was established in Banke in July 2010 called Banke National Park. The park  and its buffer zone extends over 550 square kilometers in Banke district. The park is adjacent to the Kamdi corridor that joins Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in India through national and community forests towards south and Nepal’s Bardia National Park towards west which further links with the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in India via Khata corridor. 

Apart from expanding national parks in southern plains of the country, the government declared Gauri Shankar Conservation Area in the district of Dolakha. Most recently, it has declared a new protected area in the outskirts of Lalitpur in forest areas of Godavari and Phulchowki.

The success of the participatory community forest model has also contributed to increasing forest coverage and wildlife populations. In the 1990s Nepal's forest area was recorded as just 26 percent of the total area. A recent forest inventory conducted in 2015 shows the forest coverage has increased to almost 45 percent. 

The successful forest and wildlife conservation, however, has created an unintended problem: human-wildlife conflict. 

In early June of this year, Asmita Tharu, 41, from Bardiya was attacked by a Bengal tiger on her field. Luckily, she survived the attack as locals were quick to chase the tiger away and rescue her. 

But her story has a darker aftermath. Riled up by the frequent animal attack and no protection from the state, locals in Asmita’s hometown staged a series of protests. Her niece Nabina Chaudhary, 18, was killed while another protester, Rakesh Chaudhary, was seriously injured as police opened fire on the crowd.

At least 23 people have been killed by tigers in Bardiya district in the last three years. 

On an average, at least three people are attacked by tigers each month in Nepal. The number of man-eating tigers is also increasing. Chitwan National Park warden Hari Bhadra Acharya said that all their cages setup for man-eating tigers are full. They had a total of 4 cages. When one man-eating tiger from Banke was transported here, the last of their cages is now occupied. If further man-eating tigers need to be contained, Acharya says that it’s going to be difficult as they haven’t received additional cages. 

In Chitwan alone, wildlife killed 16 people in the last 12 months.

Locals blame the government for not taking care of people who live near protected areas and their livelihoods.

“The government only ever talks about saving tigers, not humans”, said Dilli Giri, local community forest right campaigner from Banke. “We have stopped going to the forests because of tigers”,  he added.

The victims complain government doesn't take their denial to natural resources seriously. 

“If you kill a tiger, the government will slap a life-long imprisonment but if a tiger kills us they will give a few thousands rupees as compensation. That’s it,” said Durga Tharu, the tiger survivor, “For them our life has no value at all. The tiger saving target is being achieved at the cost of our life and livelihood”, she said.