Sunderbans Tiger Reserve authorities on Tuesday launched a special surveillance vessel fitted with searchlights to avert tiger attacks on fishermen who enter the core areas in search of crabs, an initiative that will also serve to deter those venturing inside.

The initiative, in addition to normal surveillance, comes in the wake of three back-to-back incidents of attacks on fishermen since January 30, in which two persons were killed and one has been traceless.

The vessel launched on Tuesday, called MV Aronya Prahari, was supported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Discovery India to prevent tiger-fishermen conflict.

Forest department sources said over past three months, at least 17 fishermen were killed by big cats. Forest officials attributed the attacks to fishermen entering the prohibited zone of tigers to catch crabs that fetch good money.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Jones Justin, deputy field director of the STR, said, ”In most cases of such attacks, fishermen enter the core area secretly without our permission. As the number of attacks increased day by day, we have deputed two patrol vessels. We have a plan to place two more such patrolling units soon.”

Apart from four forest guards, two BSF jawans will be in the surveillance vessel to ensure law and order.

“Armed BSF jawans will combat any resistance from intruders since the economic crisis has made the fishermen desperate for survival,” said a senior STR official.

On Monday night, Shankar Sardar of Kultali was fatally injured after a tiger mauled his head inside Benifeli forest. Two fishermen accompanying him managed to rescue him and brought him to Kultali.

He was taken to Joynagar-Kultali rural hospital and shifted to SSKM Hospital in Calcutta where he succumbed to injuries on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, Chittaranjan Darker, 45, a fisherman from Parashmani village of Satjelia island of Gosaba, was dragged away by a tiger when he was removing crabs from traps by a creek near Chilmari area under STR’s Basirhat range.

On January 30, crab-hunter Arabinda Biswas from Kumirmari village was killed by a royal Bengal tiger.