A man who ventured into the forests in the Sunderbans to hunt for crabs was killed by a tiger on Saturday.

The victim was identified by foresters as Panchu Munda of Nagenabad village in Maipith panchayat area of Kultali block, South 24 Parganas.

Munda, his wife and two other villagers had gone looking for crabs on a boat inside Ajmalmari forest.

“He was attacked by a tiger from behind. The others raised an alarm but by then the tiger had inflicted fatal injuries before leaving Munda,” said a forest official.

On January 30, a resident of Kumirmari village in Gosaba block was killed by a tiger inside Jhilla forest. Arabinda Biswas was also part of a group hunting for crabs in a creek.

Man-animal conflict in the mangrove delta has heightened since the pandemic. Over 30 persons were killed by tigers in the Sunderbans in the past two years, say foresters. Most entered the forests illegally to catch fish or crab as many avenues of income were blocked by the pandemic.

To add to that, rising salinity of the water in areas closer to human settlements has diminished fish and crab yield, forcing villagers to enter core forest areas.

“Munda’s group did not have a boat licence certificate and entered the forest probably by breaching the nylon net fencing,” said the forest official.

Nylon net fencing along the boundaries of forests has for long been a successful model to prevent tigers from entering human habitats. But people entering the forests now are regularly breaching the nets. “During routine inspections, our men on boats regularly find nets breached. They are repaired on the spot,” said an officer of the Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve.