@worldpressphoto

Residents of a village near the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, in Tamil Nadu, India, place the body of a man killed by a tiger before the forest office, to⁣ protest and demand that officials shoot the tiger, on 2 October 2021.⁣ ⁣ In India, Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) are considered endangered, with up to 3,000 surviving in the wild. Human settlement, cultivation, and urban development are encroaching on tigers’ natural habitat and reducing their prey base. Villages on the perimeters of tiger sanctuaries and reserves are often home to Indigenous communities, who depend on livestock, farming, or the forest for their livelihoods. Conflict arises when tigers kill livestock and occasionally humans, which although rare, usually occurs when angry groups surround tigers who have entered settlements.⁣ ⁣ From ‘Boundaries: Human-Tiger Conflict’ by Senthil Kumaran (@senthilphotography), awarded in the Long-Term Projects category of the #WPPh2022 Contest.⁣ ⁣ Senthil Kumaran is a documentary photographer and @natgeo explorer from Madurai, South India. He has been working with conservationists, forest officials, and local villagers for the past ten years, to understand and document the various dimensions of human-tiger conflict. Follow the link in our bio to discover his work.