Listen to the scientist

Listen to the scientist

Wildlife research can be categorised as those that are purely academic and others which have implications for management. A good example of the latter is the survey, conducted nearly a decade ago, by wildlife scientists to find an alternative home for the Asiatic lion. The site chosen was Palpur Kuno wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. However, the recommendations of the researchers were ignored in the face of political issues: Gujarat wanted the Gir lion to remain within it.

In the West, wildlife management is based on inputs provided after years of research. That has yet to happen in India. Politics would not have overtaken the issue of finding an alternative home for the Asiatic lion if the word of the scientist had precedence on issues relating to conservation.

A recent study Recently, another issue related to management of large cats has come into focus; it has, in fact, acquired much prominence for the matter at hand is their conflict with humans. A study by this author along with Sanjay Thakur, Sujoy Chaudhuri and Anirudh Belsare (A study of the man-leopard conflict in the Junnar forest division, Pune district, Maharashtra, Forest department, Maharashtra and Wildlife Protection Society of India, New Delhi, 2004) shows that human-leopard conflicts in our country are exacerbated by policies that use methods that are not recommended for carnivores when they come into conflict with people .

Leopards, given their high degree of adaptability, commonly live at the edges of rural Indian habitations. This is because they prey on anything from frogs to dogs and are not as water-dependent like their larger cousins, the tiger. Unfortunately, these animals are easy to trap in baited cages and this is what wildlife authorities resort to following any conflict (a broad definition which includes attacks on humans, livestock or even the mere sighting of a leopard near human settlements). Although the law requires that an animal be trapped only if it is a threat to human life, public pressure and absence of proper methods to identify offending leopards lead to the caging of quite a few innocent individuals.

The animals are then immediately translocated to nearby forests -- a management strategy recommended by section 11 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 that was amended in 2002.

No solution Scientists do not recommend this method; translocation is advocated only to establish or increase the population of a species at or close to the site. The procedure is applicable to the Gir lions but is certainly not recommended for problem carnivores.

The regular translocation of leopards into a few forests is likely to have caused an enormous increase in the population of these large cats close to these sites. Not surprisingly, these animals very often stray into nearby villages where dogs and livestock are easily available. Earlier, these peregrinations were attributed to decreasing natural forests and the presence of easy prey (livestock) in nearby human habitations. But our study shows that high leopard density and high conflict areas (in many parts of Uttaranchal, North Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra) also have release sites within or adjacent to them where leopards have been translocated for the last many years .

Understand leopard behaviour
Now that scientists have pointed out the exact cause of the problem, one hopes the action to rectify it would be simple and swift: the removal of the word translocation from the section 11 of the Wildlife Protection Act and subsequent action at the ground level.

Many of these animals live without causing any problems to humans, their only 'nuisance value' being only sightings by people. Educating the public is a must: people must know how leopards lead their lives close to human settlements. For, the longer we take to understand this species, the deeper we will condemn its future in our country, where it's increasingly being regarded as a pest.

Vidya Athreya is a freelance wildlife biologist. Her research interests include strangler figs and large felids 12jav.net12jav.net