So why then does it surprise us when we read headlines such as ‘leopard attacks man’ or ‘five killed by leopard’? How does the onus entirely land on the animal, and not the human beings who have encroached?
Despite spending most of his life researching reptiles, last year 71-year-old Rom Whitaker set out to film a documentary Leopards: 21st Century Cats, triggered by his curiosity to study these big cats and their complex relationship with the people they share their habitat with.
Set across India, the one hour documentary leaves you with an unexpected suggestion that the best way to deal with these predators
is possibly to learn to live with them.
An important insight in this documentary
has been provided by Vidya Athreya, a biologist
with Wildlife Conservation Society—India,
who believes that messing with the wildcats,
translocating them and killing them is
actually creating more problems than it is
solving.
Whitaker’s trip to her study site in Maharashtra
revealed that leopards can harmoniously
coexist with human beings, sometimes
without even being noticed. Athreya’s
Project Waghoba aims to find out the density
of leopards, their prey, the losses farmers face
due to leopards and their attitudes towards
the species.
“Man-eaters are manmade,” she states in
the film.
In addition to translocation and poaching,
Athreya believes hunting might also be creating
man-eaters.
“There are records of tigers in the Russian
far east who have attacked humans who were
hunting them. All these aspects we never hear
of or do not know of because these are essentially
illegal activities which are never
brought to light,” states Athreya.
The news of a group of Sumatran tigers
killing and eating a man in the Gunung Leuser
National Park in Indonesia made international
headlines last year, but what many did
not know was that the group of men had earlier
unwittingly killed a tiger cub while hunting
deer.
Known to be highly adaptive species, normal
leopards fear human, while man-eaters
overcome this fear.
Reiterating the point of translocation, an
advisory from the Ministry of Environment
and Forests on managing human-leopard
conflict states ‘Leopards are highly adaptable
animals, and exhibit amazing homing instincts.
A translocated leopard trying to navigate
to its home territory through a dense
human landscape may lead to increased incidences
of conflicts rather than reducing it.
Therefore, it is best to avoid translocation.’
Exemplary of this would be Mumbai’s Sanjay
Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Between
1990s till 2006, the areas adjoining the Park
on all sides were in the news for constant
leopard attacks, some even fatal. While popular
folklore attributed it to the closure of a
meat factory in SGNP, Athreya states the attacks
were related to large scale captures and
releases of leopards inside SGNP.
According to a report by Athreya and her
team, ‘since the late 1980s large numbers of
leopards were trapped around SGNP every
year. They were either released within the
park or in distant forest areas like Tungareshwar
and Tansa. Inexplicably, leopards trapped
from these areas and even other districts of
Maharashtra were released in SGNP. This resulted
in animals injured during trapping as
well as mothers separated from their cubs
and vice versa, being released indiscriminately
in areas entirely new to them. Cats are
highly territorial and know their area very
well. If such an animal is removed and suddenly
placed in a new place, the chances of
conflict increase with negative repercussions
for humans as well.’
While coexistence is the answer, risk is the
baggage it brings along.
But Athreya believes nothing is risk-free.
“Every day some 10 people die in Mumbai
trains and it does not even make the news.
One leopard killing in 10 years makes enough
news to make people think leopards are
killing people every day,” she states.
The wildlife biologist saw living with leopards
as the solution primarily because no
amount of removal is going to make the landscape
devoid of large carnivores because their
food and habitat is there. “Secondly, in a
densely human populated country like India,
removals could increase attacks on people
and so you learnt to live with them so that
problems to us are minimised.”
Richard D’Souza, principal chief conservator
of forests, has not come across any fatal
human attacks in Goa.
“They are shy animals. Unless injured or
encroached upon, they don’t come out.
Though last year we did sight many leopards
and cubs, and they were rescued and released
in their original habitat,” he says, adding that
Thursdays are a good time to spot wild animals
in Bondla. D’souza has also noticed that
where earlier locals took matters into their
hands when they spotted a leopard, now they
instantly inform the forest department’s mobile
squad. As per statistics with the department,
they have rescued and rehabilitated 39
leopards from 2011 till date in Goa.
Sharing a refreshing story of a lady from
Canacona who was felicitated recently by the
forest depart for sheltering and feeding a
leopard cub for a night, he says, “She waited
for us to collect it the next morning. Today, it
is a beautiful and happy animal.”
So if leopards attack only when provoked,
why is their trajectory similar to the nearlyextinct
tiger population in India? How can we
avoid a ‘save the leopard’ campaign?
Athreya believes the media needs to dumb
down the way it reports leopards.
“Everyone is soon going to hate the leopard,
considering it is only negatively reported
whereas attacks are so rare and more common
are the fact that they live among humans
without doing anything at all. Livestock attacks
can be addressed by better protection,
which is something local people have learnt
to live with,” she says.
Living with Leopard
• Recognise that leopards are resident
in the area and mere sightings do not
translate into danger.
• Leopards do not recognise our maps.
However, they are sensitive enough to
avoid contact with people and in fact
do their best to avoid us.
• Be alert after dark (when leopards
are active), especially ensuring that
children are supervised by an adult if
they are outdoor. You could also put on
the music on the mobile phone so that
it knows that the creature walking
along is a human.
• Do not move about alone after dark.
This will alert any leopard nearby and
reduce any chance of you being mistaken
for prey animal.
• If a leopard is sighted, give it right of
way and allow it move off peacefully.
Any loud actions or aggressive posturing
may cause it to react with alarm
(and panic), leading to unintended consequences.
• If a leopard is sighted in the area, do
not form a crowd around it.
• The focus should be on long term solutions.
These include better sanitation
measures including proper garbage disposal
in villages and towns so that feral
pig and dog populations are kept under
check, and do not attract wild carnivores.
Providing proper toilet facilities
in rural areas would go a long way in
reducing incidences of accidental encounters
with leopards.
• Farmers should be made aware that
livestock sheds should be strong, robust
and leopard proof.
