"The first instinct when a tiger is spotted is to just kill it," laments Gurmeet Sapal, a wildlife filmmaker based in New Delhi.

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"The feeling of fear and retribution is so strong that it shuts out any other emotion. What we don't realize is that the tiger never attacks humans until it is forced to," Sapal says.

India has been struggling to halt the tiger's decline in the face of poachers, international smuggling networks and the loss of habitat that encourages the animals to leave the forest in search of food.

So far this year, 58 tiger deaths have been reported in the country, according to Tigernet, the official database of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

"The tiger's prey base has been rapidly depleting because we have been eyeing his resources. The predator has to make a lot of effort to get its food," says Mayukh Chatterjee, a conservationist with Wildlife Trust of India.

"In such a scenario, livestock and human beings become easy prey for the tiger and lead inevitably to conflict," he says.

Filmmaker Sapal says it is only normal for people to think of the tiger as a dangerous animal, but its image as a voracious killer is misplaced.

"Tigers never kill for sport. They don't store meat in the deep-fridge. They kill their prey only when they are hungry," he says.

"If we can make people understand the importance of the tiger in our food chain and ecosystem, we would have won half the battle."

The other half - against poachers greedy for tiger parts - can only be won with constant monitoring and patrolling, says Belinda Wright, director of the nonprofit Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"There no longer should be any compromise on our conservation efforts if we want these magnificent creatures to survive," Wright says.

Agence France-Presse