Rise in leopard population is fine but what about shrinking habitat
First it was ‘tiger, tiger burning bright’ as the whole of India rejoiced when reports pointed out the rise in tiger population. Now, it is the turn of leopards. According to the ‘Status of leopards in India, 2018’ report, the number of leopards has risen from 8,000 in 2014 to 12, 852 which is a 60% increase. It is heartening to note the positive development but the big cause of worry is the shrinking habitat. In the last three years there have been at least two dozen instances when leopards entered villages and even towns and cities due to fragmentation of forest land.
Even as stories about the rise of leopards made headlines, in separate incidents, leopard attacks claimed the lives of two women within 48 hours in Pithorgarh district of Uttarakhand. The first attack was on Thursday and the next on Saturday. Closer home, in Hyderabad and its surroundings, there have been stray incidents of leopards making their way in Rajendranagar and inside ICRISAT campus.
Setting a forest on fire by angry villagers of Harinagari area in North India in 2018 after a leopard killed a seven-year-old boy is still fresh in mind. Human-leopard conflict accounted for 10 deaths in the last just one year (2019-20) in Uttarakhand.
Moving closer to human settlements and rise in human-animal conflicts is an issue that needs to be addressed. The solution is harnessing greener technologies to protect forest land.
The changes in the availability of prey or the lack of it is forcing leopards to move closer to villages and kill humans and cattle reared by farmers. The increasing movement of people into forest areas too is a problem.
