The tiger gods of Melghat

In our Korku community, we believe that if a tiger comes to the field, it is auspicious. Its footprints signal riches for the farmer. There is prosperity all around.

My name is Ramlal and I was born in Payvihir village in the buffer area of Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) in Maharashtra. And I, Vasant, live in the village of Boratyakheda in the core area of MTR. We are both Korku tribals, and generations of our families have lived in these forests.

We grew up with the knowledge that finding the marks of a tiger's claws on the dung of cows and bulls, is an auspicious sign. That marked piece of dung would be stored in the granary, its presence would ensure no shortage of grains for the household.

We grow maize, sorghum, paddy, wheat, millets, soybean, groundnut, sunflower, sesame, pigeon pea, mung, chickpea and other pulses. We consume most of this and sell a small portion. Most of the farmers in our community have individual forest rights for cultivation of forest land. We depend on rainfall but also use water from nearby streams and wells for irrigation.

Tourists who go on jungle safaris in this tiger reserve are thrilled and proud when they sight a tiger in the forest, and they even start calling themselves tigers!

But we Korku people believe that frequent sightings of the tiger are not good news: “Kula mama aam cholaka baki dugu [tiger mama, don't ever show yourself to us].” In the Korku language, we address the tiger as ‘mama’ [maternal uncle] – acknowledging the mother who gives birth through addressing the tiger as a maternal uncle, or ‘mama’ who provides protection.

So, while we welcome the knowledge of its presence in our fields, we don’t want to see the tiger.

There are around 30-39 tigers estimated to live in the MTR. It lies at the base of the Satpuda range in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, stretching across 2,769 square kilometres of dry deciduous forest in central India.

[Not just tigers, but the forest abounds with leopards, wild dogs, striped hyenas, wolves, jackals, foxes, bears, sambhar deers, nilgais, wild buffaloes, pangolins, four-horned antelopes, wild boars, spotted deer, otters, sloth bears, Indian gazelle, monkeys and more.]

We Korkus believe that the tigers attacking people are not the tigers we have grown up with in the forests. They are coming from outside.

Lately we have seen that most victims of tiger attacks are young men in the age group of 20-35 years. They do not have the same understanding of the forest and animals as older people who grew up inside the forest.

Younger people, do not know how to behave with a tiger, or how to gauge if there a tiger around or not, they don’t have a clue. They are the ones being attacked, by and large, the ones who ignore the fact that tigers are around. They have not been in the forest as young children.

They do not know because for 25 years these forests have been closed off to us – since Melghat became a tiger reserve. They have been kept out, so when they go, they don’t know how to behave.

[For people living in and around tiger reserves, growing infrastructure projects have altered the local ecology, leading to a crisis in livelihoods. This is pushing local communities to rely more on forest offerings, leading to potentially higher human-wildlife conflict. On the other side, tiger population in the central Indian landscape has been increasing, spilling out of tiger reserves, into buffer zones, farms and villages outside. Of the 3,682 tigers in India, 1,439 live in central India and the Eastern Ghats, and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserves have witnessed substantial growth in the tiger population, says Status of Tigers 2022.]

When anyone from our community goes to the forest to graze their cows and buffaloes, and to bring minor forest produce, the village performs a public worship for their safety, and for the safety of our animals.

[The tiger is one among several deities worshipped by the tribals of Melghat.]

If we feel that tiger attacks have increased in the village, the panchayat will call for donations, around 50 -100 rupees. The money is used to buy coconut, kharik [dried dates], lemon, flags, sugar, agarbatti [incense sticks],rava [cream of wheat], edible oil, bokud [goat], chilli, cumin, turmeric, tomato, salt, onion, garlic, rice and so on.

The tiger devata [god] is offered a goat, and a coconut, smeared with vermillion, is given to the Bhumka – the priest who performs the ceremony.

He prays: “We are giving you an offering. Please leave the area of our village and stop harming our animals.”

After the priest says this prayer, the prasad [food for the worship] is cooked by the village elders and youth who have gathered for the ritual – usually men – and distributed in wadi. [Wadi are the leaves of either the sal or palash tree which are used for eating].

Everyone sits down to eat. The tribal chief announces that no person will talk to each other while eating or the person who talks will have to bear the entire expenses of worship! There is a reason for this as we believe that if anyone talks about the puja, the ceremony is nullified. This is our belief.

So only after eating do people start talking.

This puja gives a message to the coming generation that the tiger is one of our deities, and we should be respectful. Our ancestors worship it.

A stone idol of the tiger god has been installed by the community in our village, Girguti in Melghat. It is a pilgrimage site for the Korku community, visited in the month of Chaitra [around April].

When the tribal Korku community goes into the forest, a bird we call ‘Chivich’ makes a sound to warn us that a tiger is close by. From the sound of the bird we can estimate if the tiger is 100-200 meters away. Then we change our direction and go elsewhere.

In this way we keep our forests protected, our animals safe, and the community stays safe.

This story was narrated by the authors in the local language and Marathi. The parts marked in parentheses and italics are the additions of PARI's editorial team.

The authors were part of the Coexistence Fellowship Programme 2023-2025 at TDU Bangalore.