Vidya Athreya
Junnar Forest Division is an anomalous name for a region almost completely devoid of any natural forests. The 4360 square km area is a predominantly agro based rural Indian setting with farm lands, houses, people living 176 to
a square km, domestic animals and their usual complement of feral dogs and cattle. Strangely in 2001 there appeared to be leopards too and not a few but more than 100 successful trappings were carried out between 2001 and 2003. This was in response to leopard
attacks on about 50 people.
Our study looked into the two main reasons cited for the escalating conflict. 1. increase in the extent of sugarcane (which was thought to provide an “ideal” habitat for the leopards in the face of destruction of their natural habitat)
2. decrease in wild prey base. Our analysis of satellite imagery of the entire Junnar Forest Divison across the last three decades, along with interviews with the affected people shows that that sugarcane was not the “causative” factor leading to the rise
in conflict. Also, rapid prey assessment carried out finds domestic animals to be most numerous. Information from satellite imagery as well as agriculture department records on land use patterns indicates that landscape level changes, especially related to
extent of forest and cultivated land has remained similar across four decades and is unlikely to have affected prey base levels so drastically.
What affected the conflict levels then? We found that in Junnar as well as in other parts of India, the most common strategy used by managers when dealing with leopards in conflict situations (be it they have fallen into wells, or
they are unwanted by the local people or there has been an attack, accidental or deliberate) is to trap them and then trans-locate them to any nearest patch of forest. This used to be carried out in western countries too in the 1980's until they realized that
it does not help and in many cases even trans-locates the problem to the new site of release. Moreover, in India, sites of release which support good forests, are few and it is likely that sustained releases of leopards at these few sites have and will lead
to increased leopard populations in the nearest suitable habitat be it tea plantations, sugarcane or millet fields.
We also found that some trans located animals, identified by the microchips we had inserted, actually moved conflict to sites where man – leopard conflict was never reported in the living memory of the people. We are now trying our
best to convince managers, policy makers and conservationists that it is very important to pay heed to scientific inputs when making policy decisions. This is especially true in the case of leopards, which as a species is very capable of living at the fringe
of human habitation and will soon be regarded as a pest rather than a beautiful large felid that needs to be conserved. The cases of poaching of leopards for their skin and body parts far out number that of tigers and it is likely that this species will soon
require better protection for which there has to be a public will. Considering the bad reputation it is increasingly obtaining now because of faulty policies, we may fast lose out on that chance.