Face to face with fear

By the time Ghazali Ismail reached his wife, Khalijah had tumbled into a deep ravine, bowled over by the force of the attack.

Blood, gushing from bites and skull punctures, stained the white latex, collected early that May morning on her plantation rounds, red.

The tiger, an orange and black ghost in a jungle of rubber trees, ferns and bamboo thickets, had already disappeared back into the forest, leaving a trail of fear in its wake.

"I've lived on this plantation for 25 years and nothing like this has ever happened," said Ismail, whose wife later died in hospital. "But in the last two years, the attacks have become more frequent."

Ismail, 54, now works alone on his 18-hectare rubber plantation near the village of Sri Jaya, Kelantan, four hours by jungle train south of the state capital, Kota Bharu.

Khalijah's tattered and bloody head scarf, tied to the tree where she was attacked, reminds Ismail daily of the risk he takes.

"I'm very scared of tigers but I have to collect the rubber," said Ismail. "If I could get a different job then I would, but this is a small town and there isn't any work."

Ismail's story is becoming all too familiar in villages across Malaysia.

Devastated by a currency crisis and low commodity prices, the economic "tiger" is struggling to preserve its fortunes and those of one of the largest populations of Indochinese tigers in South east Asia.

Government officials estimate there are just over 500 in peninsular Malaysia, where they've been protected since 1976. Roughly a fifth of the population lives in Kelantan.

The Indochinese tiger might be smaller than its Siberian or Bengal cousins but it's still capable of inflicting terrible wounds when it pounces, usually from behind.

Last December, a 10-year-old boy needed 50 stitches after a tiger mauled him near Gua Musang, Kelantan. A month later Mahwat Awang, a 26-year-old Orang Asli (aborigine), almost died when a tiger surprised him while he stalked a wild boar near Kuantan, Pahang.

In August, villagers insisted four tigers killed 29 cattle near Felda Chini Dua, Pahang, decimating a livestock project designed to boost the local economy.

M. Noor Ariri, the deputy director of the Kelantan Wildlife and National Parks Department, said tiger preservation is still one of Malaysia's top priorities, pointing to its policy of taking animals alive whenever possible.

Ariri said state rangers captured two tigers, which were sent to the Melaka Zoo, near Sri Jaya after the May attack.

However, there could be more than five others lurking in the vicinity, since a tiger's average range is between 40 and 60 square kilometres.

"We receive a lot of complains from villagers but we only capture tigers that have attacked people or livestock," said Ariri. "Otherwise, we don't like to bother them."

But Wan Majaid, a 29-year-old Sri Jaya rubber tapper, isn't convinced the government captured the right tiger since he discovered tracks near his house similar to those at the site of the attack.

"We really hope the government can solve this case soon, " said Majaid. "We don't care if they take the tiger alive or kill it. This is our livelyhood. If they can't take care of it, we'll kill it ourselves."

The reason tigers attack people is also a bone of contention between the locals and the government.

Ariri said the expansion of palm oil and rubber estates, coupled with a drop in the number of wild boar, is forcing tigers to hunt closer to villages.

Tigers will also attack people if they are old or injured and thus incapable of hunting larger game, said Ariri.

However, M. Narri Che "Mayee" Hassan, the manager of KB Backpackers Lodge and local guide, said most attacks occur during the February to May durian season, when tigers come out of the jungle to feast on the fetid fruit.

Lauded across South east Asia as the "King of Fruit," the durian is touted as an aphrodisiac, a label that also plagues the tiger.

Considering its distinctive smell, a cross between an open sewer and a rotting carcass, it's plausible that tigers could be attracted to the plantations during the harvest.

"You can always tell when a tiger has eaten a durian," said Mayee. "They leave the skin and seeds in a neat pile. Humans are messy. They just throw them everywhere."

But Ariri dismissed the suggestion.

"Village people say tigers like to come down from the jungles to eat durian but I think they are after the wild boar that live on the plantations," said Ariri. "Durians aren't a major food source."

Ismail said he doesn't know why tigers are attacking people, but it hardly matters.

"This is the tigers' area," said Ismail, resigned to fearful work in a jungle of ghosts. "They will eat whatever they can catch - fruit, people, it doesn't matter. It's their territory, now."