Rising trend of man-tiger conflict at man-nature interface of Indian Sundarbans: study towards traditional understanding and challenging livelihood of Sundarbans people

Sundarbans region has its own unique physiographical, ecological, economical and socio-cultural individuality. As a home of nearly nine million people the entire Sundarbans area has emerged as one of the poorest and malnourished region of the South-east Asia. Man-tiger conflict or tiger attacks in riverside settlements around the Sundarbans Reserve Forest in West Bengal, India are a continuous matter of concern. The principal objective of this research is to identify the reasons behind the increasing human-tiger conflict in Indian Sundarbans. Landsat-8 satellite image (path = 138, row = 45, 30 m spatial resolution and eleven spectral bands) has been used to identify the high possible areas of Man-Tiger conflict within the SBR region. The survey involved 100 respondents selected from Gosaba, Kultali, Basanti and Mathurapur II CD blocks in which 85 respondents aged 50 and above were actively participated in the perceptional survey process. Result showed that major proportion of the Sundarbans people is traditionally dependent on forest resources for maintenance of their livelihood. Research identified the principal factors which have been responsible for increasing man-tiger conflict in Sundarbans such as degeneration of forests, habitat loss due to flood and sea level rise, encroachment into wildlife territories for economic activities, intrusion into human settlements for scarcity of wild pray in forest. Deulbari, Dongajora, Bhuvaneswari are the areas of human-tiger conflicts due to closeness with nearest buffer forest area. The adjoining rivers of these two villages Melmel and Gomor are highly vulnerable due to its proximity of reserve forest.


Introduction
Human-tiger conflict is an integral part of people livelihood of Sundarbans. Together the 10000 sq.km mangrove ecosystem is world's most famous human-tiger conflict hotspot accommodating nine million people and more than 200 tigers (Chatterjee et al. 2022). Since 1770 reclamation of Sundarbans forest was started by British ruler for the agricultural activities and associated revenue generation (Pargitar 1934). Within two centuries the forests were severely degenerated and people have encroached even more and more interior southern islands of Sundarbans (Das 2017). "Sundarbans should be taken under forest management without delay, instead of extensive cultivation towards the south without considering to what extent the permanent field of forest produce maybe curtailed by it" -the statement was given by Mr. Wilhelm Schlich (Conservator of forest). The article which is popularly known as first scientific writing on Sundarbans, 'Remarks on the Sundarbans ', published in Indian Forester (15th Vol, 1875). The reclamation of Sundarbans by British East India Company in the nineteenth century exhibited a new hazard 'human-tiger conflict' where local tigers attacked unprotected weaponless, unskilled outsider forest cleaners and branded as 'man eaters' Royal Bengal Tiger. As the panic halted the land reclamation process, many cleared lands again covered with mangroves (Bacon 1837). Laborers were severely frightened considering the socio-cultural unrest the then British rulers announced reward for Tiger killing particularly for the native hunters. According to an estimated report around 2400 tigers were killed in Sundarbans in between 1881 to 1912 to continue land reclamation, agricultural practices and settlement growth along the river embankment (Chakrabarti 2009). Today, after hundred years more than around four and half million people are now exposed to the resources of Indian Sundarbans ecosystem in one hand as well as hazards like human-animal conflict in the other. A greater part of Indian Sundarbans is now an extended territory of regular economic and socio-cultural practices. As a consequence tigers are losing their habitat regularly and the degradation of ecosystem components like sweet water bodies make them desperate for new areas of living. Unsustainable deforestation is the major observable cause of overall degeneration of tiger's habitat quality (Blasco et al. 2001). It is historically truth that depletion of forest tree communities in Sundarbans ecosystem have closely associated with the anthropogenic activities like over-exploitation of mangroves, shrimp and crab farming, dam construction and minimization of water flows in regional rivers and khals from Ganga-Padma water system (Sarkar et al. 2016). With the march of time the human-animal conflict is not only affected the life and living of human being but also forwarded a survival challenge for several endangered species (Messmer 2009). This is now a global issue very closely related with conservation and sustainability of forest (Madden 2004). There are various reasons for the human animal conflict in Sundarbans mangrove forest over several decades (Chowdhurym et al. 2015). Sundarbans plays a very crucial role to protect not only millions of Gangetic delta habitat from tropical cyclones and associated floods but also caters regional socioeconomic opportunities for the development of Sundarbans (Iqbal 2020). It has also immense contribution in the sociocultural traditional practices as well as welfare and life support systems (Uddin et al. 2013;Shameem et al. 2014). As the greater part of the native people are not educated, skillful and economically affluent, they are largely dependent on resources of mangrove forest (Hussain and Badola 2010). Human -tiger conflict is regularly increasing because the livelihood options of the poor Sundarbans people and their others living practices dominantly depend on the ecosystem services and functions of Sundarbans through fish and crab collection, honey and fuel wood collection etc. (Ekka and Pandit 2012). Undoubtedly the Sundarbans mangrove forest is not only dynamic in nature but also it is now under threat of extinction due to major climatic hazards and anthropogenic activities (Girietal. 2008). The decline of Sundarbans forest is closely related with the hazard of man-animal conflicts. Before India's independence in 1947 a working plan by Curtis and Chowdhury was outlined for the period of 1931 to 1951 to address the issue of degeneration of forest and associated ecological instability. It was block specific and suggested silviculture system to strengthen forest ecosystem management as well as maintainable supports of forest resources (Hossain et al. 2021). Deforestation and associated man-tiger conflict is an consequence of biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation in one hand (Iqbal 2020), on the other participatory community understanding about forest and tiger (Chowdhurym et al. 2015). The strongest point of this study is the inculcation of observational as well as participatory experiences. The aim of this article is to realize the socio-cultural aspects of increasing human-tiger conflict in Indian Sundarbans from the perspective of traditional understanding of common people. In today's world "nature' or 'natural resources' are most significant commodity and its resource functions create an unique relationship between human territorial integration and subsistence support system from forest (Igeo and Brockington 2007;Fletcher et al. 2019). There are several studies associated with the causes and consequences of human-tiger conflict in Sundarbans (in both India and Bangladesh) and these papers have documented the history of reclamation and conservation I Sundarbans, nature of ecosystem degradation, social attributes particularly stigma relate with tiger victims and over all sustainable management associated with the livelihood of native people (Giri et al. 2008;Mukherjee et al. 2014;Ghosh et al. 2015;Sen and Ghorai 2019;Sen 2019;Iqbal 2020;Chatterjee et al. 2022). All the major studies mainly highlight that justified design for sustainable living for both human being and tiger prioritized for the ecological as well as socio-economic stability in Sundarbans but this study has qualitatively and quantitatively present traditional understanding of local people where human-tiger co-existence may be possible avoiding regular confrontation. This study is solely based on the common knowledge base activities and preferences of understanding in community level and popular social, economic and cultural traditional practices related with time tested perceptional decision making. Community studies related with conservation issue are addressed and introspected by very few considering the context of livelihood improvement, cultural practices and preservation issues in and around Sundarbans forest area (Sen 2019).

Study area
The Indian part of Sundarbans is located in between 21°32' to 22° 40' N and 88°10' to 89°51'E. The entire Sundarbans is the world's largest inter-tidal zone delta having 26,000 sq.km area of which 16,370 sq.km in Bangladesh and 9630 sq.km in India (Das 2020) (Fig. 1) .The Indian part of Sundarbans which were declared UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 actually constitute world's largest riverine mangrove forest area with an unique biodiversity combining aquatic species and wildlife (STR 2014). Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR) covers an area of 9630 sq.km and the uninhabited part of the Indian Sundarbans (part of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve) represents 4263 sq.km area. According to the present administrative division this area is also divided as Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR), 2584.89sq.km and South 24 Parganas forest division 1678.11 sq.km respectively (Sen 2019). The study and the direct people's interactions were particularly conducted in the four different blocks namely Gosaba, Kultali, Basanti and Mathurapur II with special emphasis on the reclaimed areas of Kultali and Gosaba. According to the census 2011, these four blocks cater more than 1 million people and more specifically Gosaba, the centre of Indian Sundarbans, located most close to human-tiger conflict territories is still facing the phenomenon of unplanned population influx. There are 29 large villages with more than 4000 population and most of the tiger victims villages like Dayapur (4972 people), Lahiripur (6851), Satjelia (8757), Kumirmari (17,451), Chhota Mollakhali (10,537) are facing severe demographic challenges because of extreme poverty, huge unemployment rate and overall low level of agricultural opportunities (Chowdhurym et al. 2015). According to the some major elements of sensitivity analysis like higher dependency ratio, unemployment, sanitation facilities, unavailibility of civic facilities, poor educational attainment manifested that Gosaba, Kultali and other tiger victim blocks are highly geographically sensitive. Physical as well as basic needs like food, wates, health services and other social, economic and civic infrastructural compulsions escalated the sensitivity of these blocks of Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (Sahana et al. 2021). The Sundarbans ecosystem provides multilevel income and employment opportunities for millions of people in both India and Bangladesh excluding physical resources and ecological support (Inskip et al. 2013). Human-tiger conflict is suddenly increasing because of post COVID lockdown and socio-economic depression but basic dependency on forest resources is always be remain same for sustainable living overcoming the threat of natural hazards and humananimal conflict.

Description of used of satellite images and software
Landsat-8 satellite image (path = 138, row = 45, 30 m spatial resolution and eleven spectral bands) has been used to identify the appropriate location of Sundarban region and the high probable areas of Man-Tiger conflict within the SBR region. The satellite image has been downloaded from USGS website (https:// earth explo rer. usgs. gov/ ) and post monsoon season has been considered. At the time of preprocessing period, atmospheric correction and haze reduction process have been done. ArcGIS 10.3 software has been used to prepare the maps.

Study specification and field visit
This research is a combination of both primary experiences in tiger affected areas and secondary data collection from various sources. The study is closely related with the history of economic utilization and socio-cultural transformation of the Sundarbans. A major part of the study area like Mathurapur was reclaimed at the early stage, before 1873 while central and south central part like Gosaba, Basanti, Patharpratima etc. were carried out after 1873, more specifically early 20th century (Banerjee 1998). But the main areas of human-tiger conflicts in today's Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve were reclaimed and inhabited even after India's independence (Jalais 2010), mostly due to the population influx associated with partition. According to Das 2017, the human-tiger conflict of Sundarbans should be specified and analyzed in two forms; firstly analyzing the practice of entering into tiger territories by native people and secondly nature and pattern of tiger straying into adjoining villages and surrounding areas. Here both the quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to collect data at the time of field visit. Data and other information were collected through target group discussions (TGD) and door to door household surveys. Target group was a combination of people who are experienced with tiger attacks directly in forest or member of such fishing or lumbering team where other member was killed by tiger in front of them. The participants were selected under the advisory as well as confirmation from local Gram Panchayets, village level administrative body of West Bengal. It is organized with 3-5 people in each of the four blocks (Gosaba, Kultali, Basanti and Mathurapur II) adjacent to the Sundarbans forest. The objective of such much specialized group was to identify the situation analysis of human behavior as well as tiger at the time of confrontation and the socio-cultural attributes of human-tiger conflicts. Considering their traditional knowledge and real ground experiences in tiger territories eight attributes, both psychological and socio-cultural were given to them. These are shown in following table (Table 1). There were 15 (fifteen) respondents and they were shared their perception, understanding and realization considering the experiences of confrontation with tiger. Here is a comparison between 15 respondents each from the same areas where a section represents personal experiences from their forest journeys and another section represents their understanding and perception without single forest journey.
Household surveys are very integral part of this research. It was conducted by door to door interviews based on a semistructured questionnaire in the villages of given study area from August, 2019 to March,2022. The survey involved 100 respondents selected from Gosaba, Kultali, Basanti and Mathurapur II CD blocks in which 85 respondents aged 50 and above were actively participated in the perceptional survey process (Table 3). All the villages representing respondents were areas of human-tiger conflict in recent past and they are riverside villages within 2km opposite of the adjoining reserve forest (SBR), more specifically tiger territories bordered with nylon fencing by forest department of Government of West Bengal. Before the conduction of Table 1 Eight attributes associated with human-tiger conflict chosen by Target Group Respondents (TGR) and the responses of Common people of the same areas Source: Author compiled the data from the target group discussions (TGD) from 2019 to 2022

Attributes
Observations from common people without forest experience from the locality of TGR Traditional knowledge base responses with forest experiences from TGR 1) Conflict time morning or afternoon early morning or afternoon 2) Position of tiger attacks no such specific observation preferably right side 3) Nature of selection of prey no such observation individual,random selection from group 4) Food habit of tiger aged and wounded tiger prefers human flesh most of the tigers are now prefer human flesh 5) Awareness of the forest intruders general awareness through media, public announcement through Panchayets, forest departments etc.
no training program or guidance on forest sensability at the time of boat licensing 6) Selection of the intrusion area boat pass for only authorized area; community discussion or individual's suggestion are deciding factor prefer core areas for more fish and crab, demarcation notices for core areas are not available along the rivers 7) Coordination among fishing / crab collection team members no official guidelines no official guidelines from forest department No lifesaving training by administrative authority before or after boat license handover. 8) Cultural under-standing of intruders Knows about rituals but reluctants about it. religious practices and family rituals before forest ventures were tradition but today's people are not so committed the survey process the selected people have briefed about the survey purpose and all the interviews were collected by the author himself. The respondents were not properly educated, most of them even not literate and not so exposed to the languages and ideas of main stream academic world. They were very down to earth, aged and experienced with living hood of Sundarbans. As they were not so skillful and trained about conventional academic understanding and research orientation, interactions with confidence building personal caring and use of local language were very helpful to accommodate their experiences and realization of learning from their journey to undarbans forest area. There were few sections in the household survey questionnaire. The first part consists of their habitation history and socio-cultural background and second part was mostly addressed the trend of tiger straying in their localities and the understanding of human-tiger conflict in the same and the final segment was assimilation of their suggestions for administrative authority or observations for fellow villagers to avoid human-tiger conflict at the time of forest trips. Most of them were very much aware about the value of 'one time forest intrusion' for collection of crab or fishes and they were justified their decision of forest intrusions comparing other opportunities of alternative 'safe and stable' income.

Analyze of collected data and data presentation
It is generally said that the people living in and around Sundarbans mangrove and their livelihood are mainly supported by the resources of mangrove ecosystem do not have proper knowledge about the overall values of mangrove and its beneficial in environmental sustainability (Rahman et al. 2010). It is a very over simplification of an idea associated with Sundarbans people. They are very much aware how to conserve the forest and they are also apprehensive about the destruction of the forest in the name of development schemes. This is one of the most significant understandings of data collection from people's perception and justifiability of data analyze in realistic manner. It is an acceptable truth that a section of respondents were weaker in understanding of the orientation of this research study but also they are not unwilling to address the issue. According to a survey Gosaba administration block is experiencing most number of human-animal or human-tiger conflict in Sundarbans as per record and Kultali stands second. It is also shared that as per evaluation of human-tiger conflict data since independence post 1987 period have witnessed more hostile tiger attacks in peripheries of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (Chatterjee et al. 2022). It is also acceptable fact that poor and unsystematic documentation of previous cases and inaccurate recalling of past experiences by forest people are still very challenging for research on human-tiger conflicts in Sundarbans. Primary data collected through the questionnaire orientated survey were analyzed through a regression analysis to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The analysis presents the regressed nature of dependent variables on independent variables and their statistically significant variation as well as interrelationship. Following variables are so much valuable to analyze humantiger conflict issue. Here, Y section is presenting dependent variable that is occurrences of conflict and X section which is presenting independent variables like (a) access to forest area (b) percentage of agricultural land owner/co-owner (c) unemployment status (d) caste scenario. According to the observed relationship between two numerical variables X and Y several outcomes has analyzed here covering all the study area. Here the following table shows the relationship between relevant factors in different tiger affected village sites which will enlighten the socio-cultural scenario of human-tiger conflict in Sundarbans (Table 2). "If any association can be discerned in a scatter diagram it can be summarized with greater or lesser accuracy by the equation of trend curve passing through the cloud of points. Straight line is the best and simple form of representing relationship.
This equation presents the trend value of Yc of Y for any given value X. For example, in this analysis it is clear that low agricultural opportunities or comparatively low ownership of agricultural land used to provoke people for more Dearing forest adventures for social, economic and cultural stability. This relationship is very much significant to address the issue of human-tiger conflicts (Fig. 2).

Result and discussion
This study firstly tries to quantify the horror of human-tiger conflicts with special emphasis on the impact of COVID pandemic lockdown on Sundarbans. Secondly, identify the spatial occurrences of conflict hazards particularly since 2020. COVID lockdown and associated social, economic and cultural changes have been registered more than three dozen tiger conflict related human losses in the Indian part of Sundarbans. Undoubtedly in almost every cases humantiger conflicts occurred on riverside adjacent to reserve forest areas at the time of crab collection or fishing. All attacks mostly happened when over enthusiastic as well as desperate or unmindful tired fishermen were captivated with collection of crabs or prawns or fishes without traditional understanding and common realization of forest. This is the situation which demands traditional knowledge base understanding and participant's responses in Sundarbans forest areas. Jhila forest area of Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR) is the pivot center of tiger attacks on human being in Indian part of Yc = a + bx Sundarbans. It is around 150 km from Kolkata, capital of West Bengal comprises several compartments and closely located with islands of Kumirmari, Kalidaspur and Hetalbari of Gosaba community block. The nearest habitation of Jhila forest area is a settlement around thirty thousand people. Harinbhanga, Raimangalrivers and many other small-big creeks crisscrossed the forest area which partly extends up to Bangladesh border. The Jhila area is a part of buffer zone but tiger concentration is very high here. People from surrounding villages have generally used the creeks and khals around it for fishing and crab collection. That is why human killed by tiger attacks are mostly located in and around Jhila for a long period. According to Das, 2017 the Jhila forest area alone observed 21% of the total deaths related with human-tiger conflict in between 1985 to 2009. All types of fishing, crab collection and associated other activities are annually prohibited in the breeding session of fishes, from 15th April to 15th June in the Indian part of Sundarbans. Except this, after several casualties in 2020-21 West Bengal Forest Department was in compulsion of reducing human-tiger conflicts in the Jhila area and as an urgent obligation forest department imposed a ban on fishing and other economic activities inside Jhila forest buffer zone area for both legally permitted boat license certificate holders and rest of the local people. According to the primary survey of the researcher in October-December, 2021 all the villages around Jhila forest area, very close to Sundarban Tiger Reserve were severely affected by Cyclone Alia in 2009 and Amphan in 2020 (Fig. 3). The seasonal cyclonic storms and floods have led to the very long submergence of agricultural lands and inundation of sweet water ponds with saline water for several seasons. Agriculture is the main occupation of Sundarban's people. In one hand the scope of immediate restoration of farmlands are very minimal and in other hand tens of thousands of migrant labors had returned to the islands of Sundarbans in the COVID pandemic period and they had no other alternatives to turn to the forests for their livelihood. Kalidaspur in one of the forest dependent village in Chhota Mollakhali Gram Panchayet in Gosaba block which is very close to Jhila forest area. It has more than 1300 families with 6000 population. Nearly 65% are Schedule Caste population and only 5% of the total population are privileged with land ownership or co-ownership. This is the ground reality that three fourths of the families are dependent on the forest but there are less than two dozen government permitted boat license holders for forest journey. Only15 to 20% of tiger victim's family used fishing boat as owner, it suggests that the majority of forest dependent people are used to borrow or rent boats from others (Chatterjee et al. 2022). The common people are very much aware of the ban or prohibition of forest or aquatic resources collection from the most vulnerable area of human-tiger conflict in Sundarbans. It is not only pandemic indeed challenges but also they have generally no other livelihood options. The situation commands their helpless movement into the territories of Royal Bengal Tiger again and again. It is a very regular cry in every corner of Sundarbans that the death figures provided by the concerned administrative authorities of forest department of West Bengal are not properly documented as well as incomprehensive due to lack of communication. The village people and forest workers posted in ground level duties has a consensus on some major coordination problems including human death occurrences due to tiger attacks in core area and the timely reporting in forest department (Sen 2019). According to the socio-cultural understanding of the forest communities there are lots of abuse and rumors after the identification of areas of tiger attacks and the concerned people faces some kind of social isolation and the family experiences panic of stigma. So many socio-cultural things are also associated with the claiming compensation and documentation of hazard consequences in local administrative level like religious belief, family rituals or community culture about the place, time and situation of accidents. Bonobibi is the iconic lady protector goddess of forest, worshipping by both Hindu and Muslim religions in their own manner. It is an integral part of their social faith and cultural practices associated with their existence in Sundarbans. There are several realization correlated with the traditional understanding about tiger attacks and the movement of the wild king. Experienced fishermen or honey collectors are used to prefer parabolic movement rather than linear movement of their team members in the forest. Tiger attacks in Sundarbans are more usual from right side and the victim is generally the most unmindful man or women of the team according to the experienced forest people. For last few years a group of people removed the tiger fencing of reserve forest unwisely to catch crab or collect honey. They are not at all aware about the changing geo-ecological profile of tiger territories after recent severe cyclones. Loss of mangroves as well as land erosion enhances tiger straying in nearest human habitation. Experienced people use to trace tigers location calculating their breeding time in coolest months from November onwards or gestation period accordingly and departed the animal as per traditional practices or released back to their territories with the help of forest department. According to Mr. Anurag Danda, Director of WWF's Project Sundarbans the humantiger conflict in Sundarbans is dynamic in nature. Since early 2020 more and more people started ventures in and around the reserve forest area, specifically a large number of people who are migrating workers now participated in the forest journey who had stopped going to forest long ago. The crowding of unskilled and unaware people around tiger territories increased the number of tiger attacks (Primary Survey, March, 2022). It is no doubt that except some geoecological factors like climate change, land loss, destruction 1 3 of mangroves. There are many socio-cultural factors also have a significant role as deciding factors of human-tiger conflicts. This is the outcome of primary survey on the study area from June, 2019 to June, 2022 ( Fig. 3; Table 3).

Findings of regression analysis
The findings of regression analysis associated with the consequences of human-tiger conflicts from study area are shown in Table 4; Fig. 4. Holistically education, income sustainability and family culture are found to be most significant attributes for the assessment of nature and pattern of human-tiger conflicts as well as services to ecosystem in today's Sundarbans (Sandifer et al. 2015). For example there are various cases of female death due to tiger attacks at the time of fishing in several parts of Sundarbans are recorded every year but according to Census 2011 female literacy rate of Kultali (59%), Basanti (60%), Gosaba (71%), Mathurapur II (61%) clearly justified that there are lack of community consciousness about ecosystem of Sundarbans because of dispassionate educational attainments (Iqbal 2020).
According to Salam et al. (2000) overall income stability and occupational satisfaction support the issue of a sustainable ecosystem and reducing human dependency on forest resources. Only 8.09% people of the selected villages of study area (with regular experiences of forest ventures and human-tiger conflicts) has enjoyed ownership or co-ownership of agricultural lands. Most of them are seasonal workers or marginal workers. The observation is same in selected river side villages of study area where tiger straying is very regular. It is only 9.64% agricultural land ownership or co-ownership by the concerned village people. Employment status is another very effective factor which promotes resilient against unwise forest journeys. Unemployment status of selected villages with regular casualties for tiger attacks are more than 50% in average (50.63%) and it is more than 55% (55.43%) in the selected river side villages of study area with regular tiger straying. The average land holding of the study area was less than 0.5 acre and truly insufficient to generate new employment as well as other income opportunities. Even most of the victim families were dependent on rented boat for their forest journeys. Only 15% of the surveyed individuals owned well prepared boats for secured waterways journey for a minimum week. However according to our considering cases 90% of them were located in and around core area of Sundarbans (n = 25). It is a proverb of Indian Sundarbans that 'where there are tigers, there are fish' (Bagh jekhane, Mach sekhane in local Bengali language). It is a known fact that after the devastation of cyclone Aila in 2009 the nylon net barrier was put in place across a major part of fringes of reserve forest to prevent tiger intrusions in adjacent river side villages and the process was mostly recurring. As Sundarbans is the worst affected part of India by tropical cyclones there were regular disintegration of fence barriers for tigers after Bulbul cyclone in 2019 and it was a regular practice of a group of desperate people in COVID lockdown to dislodge it for easier access to forest resources. Another interesting part of the analysis is the caste character of victim areas. Average 73.13% people are schedule caste where regular tiger victims are very common. Around 88% were male victims according to this study cases with a family status of below poverty line as per classification of Government of India (lessthanRs6,400 income per month in rural India). And more specifically 88% of the victims were representing the schedule caste and other backward class community. It was a distinctive finding from the village survey that the major section of Schedule tribes are not interested in forest ventures for collection of resources compare to other communities and it was one of the significant cause of minimum tiger attacks related death reporting from this ethnic group.
There is a very strong relationship between some very important variables and casualties due to man-tiger conflicts and others factors like economic vulnerability, cultural practices and accessibility to forest areas. Most of the village people are poor as well as marginal and seasonal workers. Increasing population and pre dominance of a very small section of people over the agricultural lands are one of the major causes of dependency on forest resources. Location benefit like adjacent riverside forest is another cause of popular as well as lucrative practice of forest ventures. It is very common result that access to forest areas and casualties due to man-tiger conflicts are very significantly related. Schedule Caste people are pre dominant in major part of Sundarbans. It is obvious that they are not only socio-culturally backward for various historical reasons but also traditionally dependent on forest resources collections. They are naturally more exposed to tiger attacks in almost every corners of the study area. Comparatively there are weak relationships between concentration of population as well as unemployment status and human-tiger conflict hazards and casualties. Because there are regular migration from the villages of Sundarbans and a section of people are now enjoying assured income through various government schemes and empowered with new socio-political practices at village level. This survey justified the fact that socio-culturally downtrodden people are now more exposed to vulnerability of human-tiger conflicts. It is now very much clear from the regression analysis that there is a close relationship between location scenario of villages and death due to tiger attacks. This is obvious because the possibilities of tiger attacks as well as tiger straying or conflicts are more in the surrounding settlements of reserve forest areas Table 3 Perceptional survey outcomes on the human-tiger conflicts in Sundarbans Researcher's remarks: Recent tiger attacks are very much common when people are sitting and crunching on boat when anchored, but generally slow and hauled movement on river side or in forest attacks tiger.

4) Occupational status of victims
Now only crab collectors are mostly exposed to tiger attacks Fish collection, crab collection are now tiger attack prone Crab collection and honey Collection; Lumbering and honey collectors are now minimum.
Researcher's remarks : With the march of time prawn collection, honey collection are not so popular in forest. Fishing is now mostly concentrated in and around core area of Sundarbans. Crab collection is now most exposed to tiger attacks because of its spatial distribution and more concentration in tiger territories.

5) Nature and pattern of teams of tiger victims
Fishing or crab collection groups are now smaller because of business orientation. Forest teams are mostly unskilled; team size are related with locational ventures and purposeful journey. Small 3-4 people crab collection groups are now popular as well as more vulnerable. Big groups for honey collections are safer.
Researcher's remarks: Most forest based livelihoods are always undertaken in groups; individual journey is not at all possible here. Crab collection which is now more tiger attack prone requires less people because its financial returns is much higher than any other forest resources.

6) Socio-economic support needs
Proper compensation for tiger widows without legal obligations; expectation for new occupation in locality Expectalternative occupation for next generation; expects proper government compensation and benefits of government schemes at ground level in villages.
Social stigma is a major Problem. Family actually practice partial fasting. Need support from neighbors at the time of venture.

7) Cultural-civic support needs
Medical support in all police stations and primary health centers for tiger victims Need training or guidelines for boat license holders for locational understanding and area of alert.
Forest based resources decreases, changing climate and landscape are threat for all. Need viable alternatives.
1 3 of Sundarbans. Encounters with tigers are more common in the closely located islands in the periphery of core as well as sensitive buffer forest areas. Lahiripur and Satjelia villages of Gosaba block has experienced 84% of total casualties related with tiger attacks as per this case study. The adjoining rivers of these two villages Melmel and Gomor are highly vulnerable due to its location associated with tiger prone reserve forest and its short connectivity between wild and human areas. Unemployment percentage is around 50% but pseudo employment like various seasonal and project base Panchayet programs were also another issue for concern. Physically disabled persons and psychologically distressed persons associated with the consequences of human-tiger conflict are effectively dominant in these areas compare to other areas of Gosaba block (Chowdhury et al. 2008). Some parts of Kultali are still vulnerable as tiger straying is frequent and the possibility of human-tiger conflict is much higher than surrounding areas. Deulbari, Dongajora, Bhuvaneswari are the areas of human-tiger conflicts due to closeness with nearest buffer forest area. Poverty, agricultural unstability, very poor scope of other employment opportunities and unskilled as well as culturally committed schedule caste people plays crucial role in the local scenario of human-tiger conflict. Average unemployment status of study area in Kultali was around 52% and the agricultural land ownership which presents stable economic support was just about6%.Therefore the relationships has justified the fact that local people's dependency on forest as well as aquatic resources and their unskilled, unexposed and marginally educated cultural life based on community practices are the major reasons for increasing human-tiger conflict particularly within and after COVID pandemic lockdown period. People are very now very easy target of Sundarbans Tiger as per popular experiences of study areas. Economic empowerment and cultural orientation are the only way for a justified solution of the hazard of human-tiger conflict.

Conclusion
This research study examines the various aspects of humantiger conflicts particularly in the context of COVID lockdown and its social, economic and cultural compulsions. This study also tangibly reflects the relationship between the traditional understanding of local community and their forest intrusion practices. The co-existence and conflict has dynamically changed their nature and pattern due to new courses of development and expansion of permanent settlement. Idea of wildlife conservation and environmental sustainability was not at all popular even after India's independence. However, in the last three decades, conservation of forests and associated issue of human-tiger conflict has emerged as a global and national administrative issue considering the threat of climate change, biodiversity losses and underdeveloped socio-economic vulnerability in this unique mangrove ecosystem region. There is a legal and ethical difference between administrative authority and community understanding about the documentation of tiger straying and conflicts because of the compulsion of authorization guidelines of records compilation and conformation. An estimated report stated that 67.2% annual tiger attacks in Sundarbans are consequences of illegal forest trip without permission (Chowdhury et al. 2008). According to the survey outcome a group of seniors suggested that there should be an understanding about the nature and pattern of activities of tiger in and around forest. Administrative tracking of Tigers with radio-collared sensors are possible as well as usual nowadays. People should avoid forest for tiger's biologically sensitive months and topographically sensitive months for climatic vulnerability in Sundarbans (Chatterjee et al. 2022).It could decrease the occurrences of human-tiger conflict so regularly and so intensely in some specific locations. But Sundarbans people are much more aware about the geoecolological significance of mangrove ecosystem as well as role of animals like tiger in conservation of this forest. The research also justified the fact that the present form of Sundarbans biodiversity and the associated anthropogenic activities are mostly embedded in socio-cultural instability, weakened economical associations and hard reality of uncertain life due increasing cases of tiger straying and conflicts (Sen 2019). Loss of lives due to tiger attacks are very common intoday's Sundarbans because of severe social, economic and cultural uncertainty in their daily life. Agricultural uncertainty, poor educational attainments, unskilled as well as unsecured working opportunities, religious practices and caste base cultural understanding are justified as a parallel effect of human intrusion in the forest. Nowadays most of the administrative policies are preferably designed to the interests of native community, the social accountabilities towards inequal opportunities, participation and approach to geographical resources and can buttress the endorsement of conservation. There is a revival plan of Sundarbans with new plantation of about 5 cores saplings for restoration of Sundarbans mangroves and the natural habitat of wildlife following the devastation of Cyclone Amphan according to the an noucement of West Bengal Chief Minister on the World Environment Day Programme, 2020. But a section of local people believe that the roots of the mangrove trees are well spread out and they need considerable space between each other. They are not merely apprehensive about the success of the project but they expect a well-coordinated effort with the government authority for the renewal of forest resources. The paper concludes that a holistically prepared time base program balancing the requirements of community and the ecological space for wildlife would require for comprehensive success and multiple sustainability of Sundarbans environment. The study findings can serve as administrative policy mechanism for not only Indian part of Sundarbans but also reorient the ideas and programs of community base forest management system including co-existence of human being and wildlife any wherein the world.
Ethical approval The authors declare that all ethical practices have been followed in relation to the development, writing, and publication of the article.
Informed consent Informed consent was obtained from author and respondents in the study.

Conflict of interest
The author declares no competing interests.