bengaluru bandipur tiger reserve btr is in the news for yet another case of mananimal conflict as foresters comb the area for the big cat which is believed to have killed two men experts attribute multiple factors including rising tiger numbers humaninduced disturbances and limited forest cover to the increase in conflict casestwo people have been killed in tiger attacks near btr this year in february a forest guard was attacked by a big cat on its fringes four tigers have died in the same period while reasons for deaths of three tigers are being ascertained the fourth has been attributed to poaching a senior official with the forest department said btr spread across 1000 sqkm is home to 120140 tigers this translates into a 78 sqkm home range for each but experts say while a tigress needs a 20 sqkm territory for a male it should span 60100 sqkm the numbers clearly indicate that btr is a thickly populated space and its tiger density is among the highest in the countrys reserves he added sanjay mohan principal chief conservator of forests wildlife said young tigers have the tendency to push older ones out of their territory and they end up in forest fringes to prey on cattle etc even those tigers injured in territorial fights find themselves in conflict zones though tigers generally dont prey on humans they do attack them in sudden encounters while tiger numbers are going up were not in a position to expand forest cover for various reasons he addedarun simha a member of vanya an ngo advocating wildlife conservation issues said humaninduced disturbance is among the reasons for increasing number of conflict cases near btr there are about 12 temples inside the reserve which are thronged by devotees on many occasions beladakuppe mahadeshwara temple in hediyala range draws lakhs of people for the annual jathra in the past two to three cases of tigers killing humans have been reported near it the situation is not very different in gopalaswamy betta and moolehole ranges of btr he explained