Attacks

If a human comes too close and surprises a sleeping or a feeding tiger (particularly if it is a tigress with cubs), a tiger may attack and kill a human. Tigers can also attack humans in a case of "mistaken identity" (for example, if a human is crouching while collecting firewood, or cutting grass)and sometimes when a tourist gets too close. Some also recommend not to ride a bicycle, or run in a region where tigers live in order to not provoke their chase. Peter Byrne wrote about an Indian postman who was working on foot for many years without any problems with resident tigers, but was chased by a tiger soon after he started riding a bicycle for his work.

In some cases tigers change their natural diet and become man-eaters. This is usually caused by a tiger being incapacitated by a gunshot wound or porcupine quills, or some other factors, such as health issues and disabilities. As tigers in Asia often live in a close proximity to a large number of humans, the tiger has killed more people than any other cat. Between just 1911 and 1994, tigers killed 16,152 people in India.

The Bengal tiger - Champawat:

Of all the sub-species of tiger it is the Bengal which has gained the worst reputation as a man-eater. It has been said that "at one time, in parts of India, at the beginning of the 19th century, man-eaters were so prevalent that it seemed to be a question of whether man or tiger would survive." Each night, fires encircled the villages and the native people only ever travelled in large groups, fully armed and beating drums to scare the cats.

In the 1930s tigers killed between 1,000 and 1,600 people each year, causing terror among the human population. One famous tigress known as Champawat killed some 200 men and women before being driven out of Nepal. She moved to another location, this time in India, and continued to kill bringing her total up to 436 before she was tracked down and killed in 1937. 

The Smithsonian Institution holds a famous 11-foot Bengal tiger in its World of Mammals Hall. This tiger was almost certainly a man-eater until it was shot in 1967. It may also have been a distant relation of the famous Champawat.

Examples

Etchojoa, Mexico — A Bengal tiger pulled an American circus trainer to the ground and apparently killed him, and the horrifying incident before a live audience in Mexico was caught on tape.

AP has confirmed the Bengal tiger attack on the trainer: “Police in the northern state of Sonora say the 35-year-old trainer was attacked over the weekend in the Sonora town of Etchojoa.

Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans, in India and Bangladesh are estimated to kill from 50-250 people per year. The Sundarbans is home to over 500 Bengal tigers,^[1] one of the largest single populations of tigers in one area.

These tigers are a little smaller and slimmer than those elsewhere in India but remain extremely powerful and are infamous for destroying small wooden boats. They are not the only tigers who live close to humans; in Bandhavgarh, villages encircle the tiger reserves, and yet attacks on people are rare. Although attacks were stalled temporarily in 2004 with new precautions, recently attacks have been on the rise. This is particularly due to the devastation on the Bangladeshi side of the swamp caused by Cyclone Sidr which has deprived tigers of traditional food sources (due to the natural upheaval) and has pushed them over towards the more populated Indian side of the swamp

.No one is exactly sure why the tigers of the Sundarbans are so aggressive towards humans, but scientists, biologists, and others have speculated about a number of reasons. These include:

• Since the Sundarbans is located in a coastal area, the water is relatively salty. In all other habitats, tigers drink fresh water. It is rumored that the saltiness of the water in this area has put them in a state of constant discomfort, leading them to be extremely aggressive. Freshwater lakes have been artificially made but to no avail.
• The high tides in the area destroy the tiger's urine and scat which serve as territorial markers. Thus, the only way for a tiger to defend its territory is to physically dominate everything that enters.
• Another possibility is that these tigers have grown used to human flesh due to the weather. Cyclones in this part of India and Bangladesh kill thousands, and the bodies drift out in to the swampy waters, where tigers scavenge them.
• Another possibility is that the tigers find hunting animals difficult due to the continuous high and low tides making the area marsh-like and slippery. Humans travel through the Sundarbans on boats gathering honey and fishing, making for easy prey. It is also believed that when a person stops to work, the tiger mistakes them for an animal, and has, over time, acquired a 'taste' for the human flesh.
• It has also been hypothesized that the tigers in this area, due to their secluded habitat, avoided the brunt of the hunting sprees that occurred over the course of the 20th century. Tigers inhabiting the rest of Asia developed a fear of humans after these events, but tigers in the Sundarbans would never have had reason to stop seeing humans as prey.

About 5,000 people frequent the swamps and waterways of the Sundarbans. Fishing boats traverse the area and many stop to collect firewood, honey and other items. In the dark forest, tigers find it easy to stalk and attack men absorbed in their work. Even fishermen in small boats have been attacked due to tigers' strong swimming abilities.