Fires in India’s protected forests are heading in opposite directions depending on the landscape, with burned area climbing in some reserves and shrinking in others, and each trend is changing what grows back.
Bandipur
A tiger killed a 65-year-old farmer in Chamarajanagar district’s Badagalapura village on Monday evening, and by Tuesday morning villagers were refusing to let the Forest Department move his body until they had a firm promise of compensation and a government job for his family.
Karnataka has ended open-vehicle wildlife safaris across all its tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries. The announcement, made by Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, is the latest in a series of safety measures following two years of escalating leopard and tiger attacks on visitors and forest-fringe communities.