It is an irony of sorts. Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh has been returning an animal lover like former Union minister Maneka Gandhi to Parliament for long but in the Terai belt in this constituency, man and animal are in dangerous conflict. Especially in and around the Dudhwa National Park, where man-eating tigers have been spreading fear and claiming human lives with alarming regularity. With no government help forthcoming, one man has decided to, well, catch the tiger by its tail.

ON THE TIGER'S TRAIL: Sharma (right) examines pug marks

Rahul Shukla, when not teaching history at Lucknow's Christian College, spearheads the aptly named Save Men from the Tiger campaign, a fruition of his 20-year-old study to combat the tiger menace that has for long haunted the region. Shukla has trodden these jungles since childhood and closely watched tigers. In the 1980s when an unprecedented number of man-tiger conflicts caused panic in the Terai region leading angry locals to retaliate, Shukla felt it was "time to step in and help man and animal". Another emotional impetus was the death of two of his uncles to the man-eaters.

Shukla's task is tough. In the past eight years, 24 big cats have been killed. But he perseveres. He travels to villages prone to tiger incursions, assuages the feelings of angry villagers and convinces them that the cat attacks human beings in the absence of a natural prey. He then teaches them how to prevent attacks by talking loudly or taking a dog along when venturing out alone or wearing a human mask on the back of the head to fool the tiger which always attack from behind.

Shukla, who has written three book on tigers, is assisted by IPS officer Vijay Kumar and IAS officers Yogesh Kumar and P.K. Jha. Though he requires funds for his campaign, he doesn't depend on others. "Often I spend half my salary on this and my wife thinks I am crazy," jokes Shukla. "But she too pitches in." And as this tireless campaigner silently goes about saving the lives of thousands of villagers-and of tigers-he has been able to contain the menace of the man-eating tigers of Terai without firing a single shot.