Man-Eating Tigers of the Sundarbans Natural World

There is a place where the tiger is still King of the Jungle.

The Sundarbans Forest that borders Bangladesh and India.

This vast mangrove forest is a last stronghold

for the endangered Bengal tiger.

It's also a place where these beautiful big cats

have a terrible reputation.

Some have developed a taste for human flesh.

In bad years, over 50 people are killed and many injured -

there's growing fear and hostility.

Tiger scientists in Bangladesh

are desperate to prevent further bloodshed.

But if a solution can't be found, the tiger's days will be numbered.

One village has a bold plan -

to train street dogs to protect them

from the man-eating tiger on their doorstep.

Will these mongrels be any match for the biggest of the big cats?

A man-eating tiger has struck again.

A fisherman has been killed

and his friends want to retrieve his body from the forest.

As the tiger could still be guarding the corpse,

it's a very risky thing to do.

Tiger biologist Adam Barlow and his Forest Department team

want the group to turn back.

Adam's an expert on the man-eating tigers of the Sundarbans,

and knows these people are playing with fire.

We tried to persuade them not to go in there.

This is a very bad idea, but they're gonna go in anyway

and we're gonna try and help them a little bit,

make it a bit safe for them,

but this is really not a safe situation.

Adam's worked with tigers in Asia for over eight years,

but he's never known man-eating

to be as bad as it is here in Bangladesh.

Lots of tiger tracks here.

We're very close to the spot where this man was killed.

Now gonna try and organise things so it's a bit safer.

Adam gives the dead man's friends some critical safety advice before

they enter the tiger's territory.

After a lethal bite to the man's neck or throat,

the tiger would have dragged the victim into dense forest.

A man's body is large enough to provide meals for several days.

MEN SHOUT

There's some blood from the tiger victim, very fresh still. Still wet.

Still following the blood trail.

They found a bit of cloth from the man's...

..clothing that was, the guy that was killed.

The fisherman's mutilated body has been found.

The tiger hasn't finished its meal.

We've just got the body, we're coming out of the jungle.

The tiger didn't attack us on the way out, which was really good,

and now they'll take the body to the village for a proper burial.

Before they leave the area, there's something they must do.

Material from the dead man's shirt will be a warning to anyone else.

Their mission's accomplished, but they leave heavy-hearted.

The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world,

six times the size of Greater London.

It's a tidal jungle that's been created where the Ganges

and Brahmaputra rivers enter the Bay of Bengal.

It's hostile to humans,

but the delta is rich and diverse in wildlife

and a sanctuary for 400 or so Bengal tigers.

Throughout Asia and the Russian Far East,

tigers are on the brink of extinction.

The Sundarbans is one of the largest tracts of wilderness

left in their range.

Tigers are usually frightened of people, but not here.

Many of these animals are known to be habitual man-eaters.

Adam and the Forest Department's Tiger Response Team

are battling to save an endangered big cat,

while also struggling to keep local people safe.

The tiger's making their job increasingly difficult

because it's no longer just the people working inside the forest

who are at risk from attack.

Tigers can easily cross rivers,

they're excellent swimmers

and some are venturing into villages that border the forest.

For over a year, the residents of Chandpai,

on the northeast edge of the forest,

have been terrorised by a predatory tiger.

For many months it killed livestock and dogs,

but one night it took its first human victim.

Adam's come to Chandpai with fellow tiger scientist Monirul Khan

to piece together what happened.

Someone is here.

Krishnapodo is the son of the woman who died.

But what provoked this attack?

Looking at this wall,

it looks quite substantial to us, but it's pretty flimsy for a tiger

and no more than some vegetation it might see in the jungle.

And it sensed the woman in there,

punched a hole through and grabbed the woman out.

Um, the tragic thing and the surprising thing is,

is that from this vantage point

you can see a whole load of cows over there,

so the tiger's come here, it's got the choice -

there's some cows over there, there's some...

there's an old lady in there, I'm gonna get the old lady.

Er, that means that this tiger's probably very bold,

dangerous, and this is the tiger we really want to deal with

and lessen the chance of this happening again.

This tiger is clearly no longer afraid of people,

and the villagers now fear for their lives.

No-one really knows why tigers become man-eaters.

Old, sick or injured tigers

may find killing humans easier than animal prey.

Perhaps some tigers have added people to their diet

after feeding on the victims of devastating cyclones.

What's clear is that for Sundarbans tigers,

eating humans can become a habit.

So the Chandpai tiger must be stopped in its tracks.

On the forest side of the river,

Adam discovers just how close it's coming to the village.

We have some tiger tracks here.

This is a pretty normal thing, we're in the Sundarbans.

The trouble is we're also right next to a village

and this tiger might be the tiger that's crossing into this village

and killing livestock and killing one old lady.

Er, the villagers are pretty frightened,

over 60 animals have been killed, and if we don't sort this out,

we're gonna have more livestock lost, more possible human tragedy

and nearly definitely a dead tiger.

There are so few tigers left in the wild that each one is precious.

They are legally protected in Bangladesh,

but it's hard to persuade local people of this tiger's value

when it's causing so much tragedy.

It's a complex problem,

but Monirul has come up with a simple and radical solution.

Village dogs.

They're lowly mongrels, but Monirul thinks they could be trained up,

not only to warn people of an approaching tiger,

but also to scare it away for good.

Do you want to be a tiger hound?

In order to test his idea out,

Monirul needs the help of a professional.

Marielle Schmidt is a dog trainer from the United States

who has volunteered to come to Chandpai

to see if she can help make Monirul's idea work.

Hello, you must be Marielle.

Hi, Monirul, nice to meet you.

Welcome to Chandpai. Thank you. Thanks for coming.

If we can use these dogs to spot the tiger

or to chase it back to the forest, that's a very good solution.

I look forward to seeing what the local dogs are like to work with.

They're probably fairly different than what I've worked with at home.

Be careful of what you're asking.

At home in Montana, Marielle runs general obedience classes...

..but she also specialises in training guard dogs.

In America, certain breeds are already used

to frighten bears away from people.

But no-one's tried pitting street dogs against a tiger.

Bangladeshi dogs are treated like pests, not pets,

and are fearful of everything.

to see if she can transform them into obedient tiger hounds.

Adam, meanwhile, is trying to control the immediate crisis.

if there's further tiger trouble.

They post stickers around the village

to publicise their tiger helpline.

We're going around now for all the mobile phone shops.

These are where everyone goes if someone's,

hasn't got a mobile phone they'll go there and see that sticker.

If someone calls the number, and if there's a tiger in the village,

then we're gonna rush to that spot and try and stop chaos happening

and stop people being killed by tiger, stop the tiger being killed.

If the village dogs are to help long term, Monirul and Marielle

first need to find out whether any of them have hidden talent.

The villagers of Chandpai have been invited to a dog audition

in the school playground. The motley crew that turn up

aren't the pedigree breeds Marielle's used to working with.

OK, I can see right away that this,

this one's not gonna work out for us.

No, he's too, too afraid.

No, when they, when they won't eat meat they're too afraid to,

to work with, so thank you, yeah, no score, no, thank you.

Where's the rope for this dog?

Get that dog on a rope or out of here.

No, no, no, get him, get him.

BARKING

It's a bit of a crazy situation here with lots of...

lots of people and dogs and activity and when you bring them

into close proximity it's not uncommon to have some tensions.

This dog is stiff and resistant, fearful, submissive but fearful,

not gonna work out for this one.

Will there be ANY candidates?

So his name is Sheik and he's two years old.

I'm gonna bang this and it may startle him and then I want

to see how he recovers or how he reacts to it.

LOUD BANG ON GONG

Not too bad. Right back, good boy.

Good boy. He's, he's brave, and fairly dominant,

as we saw from his behaviour with other dogs,

which could be a little problematic. Let's give him a... six.

It's hard with the females because they spend much of their life here

raising puppies or being in heat

and that could be distracting for the boys in the pack.

So, probably it's best to stick with males for the pack work.

Thank you, we'll let her go take care of her puppies.

So, no score? No score.

Good boy.

Oh, this is nice, he's much more responsive.

Willing to take it from the hand the first time. Good boy.

Just one, one at a time, OK... So, let's try it. Yes.

OK. Kind of expected that.

Good boy, it's OK, it's OK. It's OK.

His name is Bullet. Bullet, OK.

He's the first one that's been quite aggressive

taking the food from my hand, which is not a bad thing.

He would need to learn respect.

He's a little jumpy around his head sometimes, a little nervous

about being touched back there,

but that can be a, a bit of a dominance trait too.

I like him, I give him my highest score, we'll give him a seven.

OK, that's great. So this is the highest scorer?

Yeah, highest score so far.

At last, a handful of dogs with some talent.

But they're still a long way from creating a canine defence force.

There's mounting pressure on Adam

to build up a profile of the Chandpai serial killer

so he can work out how to deal with it.

It's not a job for the faint-hearted.

I'm a little bit nervous.

Normally a tiger's afraid of humans,

but this tiger's gotten over that fear

and now it's trying to kill cattle, even one person.

And the forest is so dense I could come across this tiger

and I won't see it until it's two metres away.

We've got some bear spray, we've got forest guards,

we've got a knife and hopefully the tiger's gonna hear me coming

before it's too late, so we've got to rely on a bit of experience,

and hopefully the tiger doesn't fancy attacking me today.

Tiger tracks, a few days old, probably male, I don't really know.

It's a little bit messed up,

but heading this way, heading towards the village.

I'm gonna see where they go.

Its gender is significant.

A female may have hungry cubs to feed.

If she's a man-eater,

her cubs may also develop the taste for human flesh.

A male tiger patrols a territory four times larger than a female's,

so he will have different hunting patterns.

Just knowing this will help Adam decide

how to best protect the village.

It's the first day of the tiger hound training.

The chosen dogs and their owners make their way from Chandpai

and neighbouring villages to Marielle's training ground.

Eight dogs were selected from the dog audition.

Marielle now needs to turn them into a well-behaved pack.

It looks like it's gonna be interesting here,

a lot of growling and attitude already.

So, hope we can keep the peace.

Congratulations, you are all now tiger hounds in training.

You have been selected for a very important job,

to protect you and the people of your village from tigers.

Marielle starts off by giving the dogs vaccinations,

new leashes and collars.

I've got an extra large collar for Bitu.

We have Sheik the troublemaker, loudmouth,

who always seems to lose his collar and leash,

so hopefully we can keep this one on him.

It goes between his shoulder blades on his skin.

He's a little excited about the meat.

Bullet, the star of the audition, is bounding with enthusiasm...

..while Bitu's reluctant to follow orders.

Good.

Marielle's first challenge is to get the dogs to cooperate with her.

But her real problem will be to get the dogs

to cooperate with each other.

Enough of that.

Ah, we have a lot of very strong dogs here and all, all males and

that's a set-up for a lot of aggression amongst them.

We're hoping to save that aggression for the tigers. Hey, hey.

No, yeah, too close. Hey, too close.

Barely an hour passes before the first casualty.

Bitu slipped his collar, and attacked Som.

He's got a pretty nasty looking wound in his hock. Good boy.

Som's gonna have to be retired from the training

at least for a couple of days and we'll see how this is going.

It should either be getting much better

or it may be getting infected.

If the dogs can't work together,

they'll never have the strength in numbers

they need to stand up to a tiger.

Som's injury is a measure of how antisocial these local dogs are.

The dogs selected by Marielle are all alpha males.

To survive, they've had to look out for themselves.

But as loners, they've made themselves vulnerable.

Tigers will eat whatever they can catch.

As top predator here, they play a vital role

in keeping the forest wildlife balanced and varied.

So why has the Chandpai tiger turned its back on its natural prey

and begun to eat domestic animals and people instead?

In the forest near the village, Adam makes a discovery that may

explain why the Chandpai tiger has become so bold.

This is, er, cattle tracks.

This means that from the village,

cows are crossing over and grazing here.

This might be part of the problem. If a tiger sees cattle a lot,

it's gonna get used to it, start eating it,

maybe overcome some of its fear of things associated with people.

All over the place.

Just cattle. I just can't believe how many tracks there are here.

If I'm a tiger and I'm hungry,

I see a big fat cow wandering around,

I'm gonna get it after a while.

the tiger will be walking close by to here...

does he stay in the forest, does he go into the village

and take some easy pickings from the cattle in there?

But Adam and his team are finding further reasons

for the growing tiger problem.

As the villages that lie close to the Sundarbans expand,

wood and other forest resources are being used up.

People are also illegally poaching deer,

the tiger's favourite wild prey.

Many villagers realise the tiger's going hungry.

Right up next to the village, there's a tiger track,

there's one tiger track right here.

Maybe it crossed at some stage.

Hopefully it didn't cause any trouble.

Gonna follow these tracks a little bit further, see where it went.

Even if the villagers stop grazing their cattle

in the forest and poaching deer,

it may be too late to reverse the eating habits of the Chandpai tiger.

It must be stopped from coming to the village.

Good boy, Sheik. Attaboy, ready?

Sheik, heel.

Good, heel, good boy.

It was a slow start,

but now the tiger hounds are getting the hang of things.

Som's leg is on the mend and it looks like he can rejoin the team.

Good, it looks very good.

I think he's just about back to new. OK, Som.

Marielle needs as many dogs as she can get.

Good, sit. Give it to him, that's it.

After just a few days, the dogs are becoming more responsive.

Make sure that they say "Good, stay",

when the dog's holding it, especially...

This may seem a far cry from tiger chasing,

but absolute obedience is vital

if the dogs are to be focused on the job.

One dog in particular has shot to the top of the class.

Well, Bullet's kind of our star pupil so far.

He's progressing very quickly,

and that's from a combination of a trainable temperament

and an effective handler,

who's done a good job of learning the cues and having good timing.

So it's coming together nicely.

Bullet shows strong leadership

when Marielle introduces the dogs to their first tiger.

They've yet to discover the difference between fake fur

and the real thing.

SCREEN: "Laxmi has been in another fight

"and has even worse injuries than before..."

Although the villagers live with tigers on their doorstep,

few have ever seen one and know little about them.

So Monirul, Marielle and Adam invite the whole village

to the screening of a tiger film in the school playground.

By appreciating the tiger better,

maybe people will have second thoughts about killing it.

"..she limps off unsteadily..."

There's a lot of persuading to do,

because it's on a dark night like this

that the Chandpai tiger strikes again.

This time it's only a goat,

but Monirul knows, from eight years studying tigers,

that the loss of just one animal

can have a devastating impact on family fortunes.

So there is a fresh pockmark over here.

THEY CONVERSE IN LOCAL LANGUAGE

So the tiger grabbed the goat from here

and took it into the forest, which is only a few metres away

and there is only a creek between the village and the forest.

It's a big loss for him, as he is a poor man

and the goat was pregnant and so it's a very big loss for the family.

Chandpai is losing patience with this tiger.

I'm gonna call Adam and tell him about this tiger.

Monirul wants Adam to track

where this tiger went after making its kill.

MOBILE RINGS OUT

The tiger is now killing on a weekly basis.

It may be a protected animal but if it carries on like this,

villagers will take the law into their own hands.

Even Adam is surprised by its brazen behaviour.

A goat was killed just over here,

dragged by the tiger across this canal,

walked through someone else's back yard,

jumped from over here right over here, carried on over here.

We're quite far from the jungle.

Jumped over here, and went into these open fields over there

and headed back towards the jungle with the goat in its mouth.

It's really amazing to me how bold this tiger is.

It's just wandering around, doesn't care that there's humans about.

And reaching the river bank, Adam finds the trail's red hot.

The tiger's been seen in the last hour.

IN TRANSLATION:

Sure...

So he was actually on the other side of the canal.

Maybe it was really close, I don't know.

There's always some crazy story around tigers,

but there are tracks over there and we'll have a look right now.

ADAM WHOOPS AND CLAPS

OK...

Really new tracks - these are about as fresh as they get.

Er, I think that the boy's story is true, the tiger was here

It's probably very close and there's no reason for us to go in there,

so I'm just gonna back out and keep, keep safe.

But, yeah, the tiger's in there. Let's go. Let's go back.

It would have been hiding just metres away in the dense forest.

It's way too close for comfort.

Gosh, what a magnificent creature.

This will be really exciting to see what the dogs do.

There's no doubt we'll get a reaction today.

One by one, the dogs are taken to meet the tiger in its den.

Good boy, there we go. Ooh, we're right here, OK.

Bitu's first. BITU YELPS

It's OK. It's OK. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Go on, tiger.

Good boy. Good tiger. Good boy. That's it.

But Bitu doesn't even make it into the enclosure.

cos that's obviously very scary for him. Good boy.

Tom's up next. Will he be braver than Bitu?

Good boy. Good boy. That's the way, Tom, good for you.

We're gonna... Watch it. Good boy, good for you, good boy.

but he held his ground surprisingly well,

a pretty assertive response to him there.

Som's gonna give us our strongest reaction yet, one way or the other.

Attaboy, Som.

Good boy. That's pretty impressive, standing up to that.

Good boy, good boy, Som.

The next step is to see whether they gain strength in numbers.

The pack of three head in together for a face-off with the tiger.

Good boy. Good boy, Bitu. DOGS BARK

Good boy. Good boy.

Good boy. Good boy, Bitu. Good boy, Bitu.

Good boy. Good boy.

Tiger looks less sure, less sure of itself.

There, the tiger's leaving, that's a different response we've seen.

Good boy. Good boy. Good.

Good boy. Good boy. Good...

Good, you. Good boy.

Bitu was the weakest link.

But brothers Tom and Som took heart from each other,

showing that dogs that have grown up together work best as a pack.

Good, Som. Good, Som. Attaboy.

OK, let's move it out here.

I think our point's been made here. Let's head on out...

Tom, Som and Bitu's owners have a particular reason

for wanting their dogs to protect them from tigers.

They have one of the most dangerous jobs in Bangladesh.

They are forest honey collectors.

On April 1st, they join other teams gathered from across the Sundarbans

to wait for the official start of the honey collection season.

Hundreds of boats race towards the forest to find the best honey spots.

But not all these men will return.

Last year, 20 honey collectors were killed by tigers.

Monirul and Adam want to find ways of reducing the casualties.

Tom, Som and Bitu's owners

would also have liked their newly-trained dogs on board,

but domestic animals are currently not allowed in the forest.

In the absence of dogs they'll have to rely on spiritual protection.

MAN CHANTS

They will not venture into the forest

until the Gunin or shaman has performed his traditional ritual.

Through his chanting and gestures, he contacts the spirits to find out

whether this forest is safe to enter.

THEY ALL CHANT

Honey is a precious commodity,

but they will collect as much as they can

in the shortest time possible.

They are dicing with death.

In dense forest, tigers wait silently and ambush their prey.

Found the hive and now we're gonna

burn some leaves to smoke out the bees so they...

they're not so aggressive, collect some honey and go back to the boat.

The smoke may make the bees less aggressive,

but it reduces visibility to zero.

It's now that the risk of tiger attack is highest.

Monirul sees just how useful dogs could be.

I think dogs could make a big difference,

because it could smell the tiger when people are busy at work

or when they smoke the honeycomb and perhaps would save their lives.

Although it is not permitted now, but I hope in the future

perhaps they will be able to use the dogs in the work.

It's a dangerous job and for not really that much reward

and they really run a risk of being attacked

and quite a few of them are.

So if there's any way we can make them a bit safer,

then we've got to try those... to try those things.

The Chandpai street dogs were once treated like dirt,

but now, both handlers and their dogs

have become local celebrities.

Marielle even has her own fan club!

Wow, look, thank you.

Look at 'em all.

Beautiful.

Star status is all very well,

but Monirul and Marielle want to show the village as a whole

how the dogs might offer a bit more protection.

It's my hope that in my short time that I've been here,

I've been able to excite some people about the possibilities

that happen when we learn to communicate with our dogs.

Good boy. Way to go.

Som has a fantastic nose for tiger scent,

and has been trained to sit

once he gets a whiff from one of the boxes.

Yes, Som. Yes, Som!

He doesn't let Marielle down.

Good. I think that's probably good. Right? OK? OK!

After the show, the Chandpai pack assembles on a night patrol.

If they smell a tiger,

they'll alert the villagers, and try to drive it back to the forest.

In just a few weeks they've been transformed

from street dogs to tiger hounds, and have given the local people

much-needed courage and confidence in dealing with their problem tiger.

But this is not the only big cat giving grief in the Sundarbans.

The Tiger Response Team has learned, via their hotline,

of a serious incident far to the west of Chandpai.

A tiger has entered a village

and some people are injured and the tiger is in fact dead.

We don't have much more than that - we're on our way to find out.

It's dark by the time Adam reaches the forest guard post

where the dead tiger's body has been taken.

It's a tragic sight to see such a magnificent and rare animal

bludgeoned to death.

We're now trying to weigh the tiger, trying to find out how heavy it is.

We don't know much about tigers in the Sundarbans, how big they are.

This is important information to see if this tiger

is a little bit different to tigers living in other areas.

Measurements from other tigers killed by people

suggest that Sundarbans tigers

may be much smaller than other Bengal tigers.

Adam notes this tiger's identity, sex and age.

We know it's a young female because of the condition of its teeth.

The teeth are very new, very sharp and not worn in any way.

It's got all its incisors, all its canines.

I think it's probably about three years old.

This young female was close to breeding age.

Over the past century,

tiger numbers worldwide have plummeted by 95%.

And now there's one less tiger in the Sundarbans.

Adam wants to find out more about how she died,

but for that, he'll have to wait for daybreak.

MEN SHOUT AND THUD STICKS

Back in Chandpai, Marielle has just a couple of days left

before she must return to the US.

Great job, guys, that was much better and more focused.

Um, like to see if we can get it even a little bit more.

While the pack perfect their tiger-driving skills,

she has one final job to do...

She will have to choose one of the dog handlers

to continue the training.

One has exactly the skills and attitude she's looking for.

MAN CHANTS

It's Shubod,

the owner of star dog, Bullet.

If local people can show such resolve,

then Adam won't have tragic missions like this.

He travels to where the other tiger was killed

and talks to the locals to build up a picture of what happened.

This is the place where they first saw the tiger.

About 20, 25 people came with sticks. It attacked one person.

Then the tiger just shot off in this direction.

We're gonna go and see the next scene of what happened.

Frightened and confused,

the tiger would have lashed out in self-defence.

This is the next place. The tiger paused again.

We've travelled about 40 metres through the paddy fields.

They shouted, they tried to get close to it,

tried to scare it away, it attacked one person.

It turns out it was no man-eater.

Just a stray tiger in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So again the tiger pauses. It's travelled about 15 metres.

The same group of people,

at the moment there's just a small group of villagers.

Right here it attacked three people,

injuring, biting, scratching, and again it moved on,

trying, just trying to escape these angry villagers.

Everyone is coming, everyone from the village is coming,

maybe more than 1,000 or 2,000 people.

This is the last place that the tiger attacked someone.

And suddenly you come across the scene of

a very violent and frightening confrontation.

Yesterday at 11 o'clock, a tiger was right here.

And there was maybe 2,000 or 3,000 villagers surrounding it,

beating it to death with sticks.

Why it happened was because people didn't know what to do.

They were afraid and they had no training in...

in how to proceed.

Um, we're gonna change that.

We're gonna have teams that can respond to these incidents

and know how to work around tigers,

and know when to intervene and when to just keep people

separate from the tiger until it has a chance to go back to the jungle.

Adam has a huge task ahead of him,

but Marielle's work here is done.

This is the end of our training together.

It's been a wonderful experience for me...

It's time for the dog pack to graduate.

..learned to appreciate what your dogs are capable of.

I've written up a training manual that I will leave with you

that's been translated

so that you have the tools to continue the work after I go.

MEN CHANT

The dogs are still a trial study.

But the villagers of Chandpai have seen their potential.

Long-term they'll need to breed the best qualities from their dogs...

Som's superb scent detection,

Bullet's courage and intelligence...

Hey, hey, hey, hey! Sheik's aggressive attitude. Good boy.

..Yes. Still.

SHE CHUCKLES

Packs could be formed in other villages bordering the forest.

Sure enjoyed working with you.

You're a fun dog to do all kinds of stuff with.

And you, you lead them on into the future, OK, Bullet?

Yes. Sire lots of future tiger hounds.

Hopefully, Monirul's idea and Marielle's legacy

will be a lasting one.

The human-tiger problem must be resolved

because the repercussions are huge for people and tigers.

IN TRANSLATION:

If people can find a way of minimising conflict,

then the Bengal tiger might be seen as the region's greatest asset,

rather than its most terrifying threat,

and the Sundarbans will remain a last great refuge for the tiger.

Soak up the atmosphere at the most famous flower show in the world.