Within the lush Melghat rain forest in central India lives a colony of magnificent but endangered beasts--70 Bengal tigers. They are the last of hundreds that roamed the region less than 100 years ago. The Indian government has passed laws to protect the tigers. But there's a problem: the laws threaten human lives.
The tigers of the Melghat Tiger Reserve share the area with the Korku, a tribe of forest dwellers. To protect the tigers, the government has barred the Korku from using the Melghat. The government wants to move 22 Korku villages out of the reserve. An additional 39 villages, which are on the fringes, will be allowed to remain. But villagers may no longer gather firewood or food or graze cattle in the reserve.
For the Korku, the laws are a threat to their very survival. Once nomadic, the Korku were forced to live in settlements in the 19th century, when Britain ruled India. They became farmers but depended on the forest for fruit, nuts, roots and firewood.
It is a difficult way of life. Since 1993 hundreds of Korku children have died because they did not have enough food. Without the reserve's resources, even more would perish.
A Vanishing Tradition
"The officials keep talking about saving the tiger. Don't they care about people?" asks Sonaji Dhande, a farmer. "If we leave the forest, our Korku tradition will vanish."
The Korku's plight is reflected across India. At least 8 million people live in or around India's 23 tiger reserves. The reserves are home to 3,000 tigers that have managed to survive illegal hunting and the destruction of their habitat. Now conservation laws are making it hard for humans and tigers to live together.
In January, the government decided to stop forcing villagers to move out of the reserve. It wants them to move voluntarily. Under the Indian constitution, the government must provide food, shelter, schooling and medical care for the children of tribal people. This promise has not always been kept.
Conservationists admit they do not know what to do with the villagers. "There is so much hunger outside (the reserves). Where do we settle them?" asks P.K. Sen, director of Project Tiger, India's program to save tigers.
The villagers of the Melghat insist they are not a threat to the great cats that have been their neighbors for so many years. "We have no quarrel with the tiger," says Onkar Shikari, an elderly Korku. "We respect one another."