Man-animal conflict: Learn from Mumbai

TNN Bureau. Updated: 1/23/2017 12:00:51 AM Edit and Opinion

The news of mauling of a young boy by leopard in Doda heights rips the hearts apart. A 12-year-old boy was killed by a leopard when he had gone out to answer nature's call in Doda district. The leopard also ate away a portion of the body by the time the parents and the villagers could trace him. Last week the state government told the Legislative Council, currently in session, that around 145 persons have been killed in animal attacks over last five years. This is an alarming situation which needs to be tacked on urgent basis. Here is one lesson Jammu and Kashmir's Forest and Ecology Department could learn from Mumbai. India's financial capital has one of the country's highest densities of leopards, according to a researcher of the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, who has concluded the first comprehensive study of leopards and their prey in Mumbai. There a density of approximately around 22 leopards per 100 square km of Mumbai. Leopards seem to embody Mumbaiite's ethos of adaptability and resilience. It wasn't always like this. The leopards of Mumbai suffered a crisis in the early 2000s. They attacked people, killing children and mauling adults. After a lawyer was killed, his colleagues circulated a petition demanding the removal of every leopard from the city. No wall was built to separate humans from leopards. People continue to live in their hamlets within the park. And there are just as many leopards in Mumbai now. Yet, since an attack on a seven-year-old boy in October 2013, no leopard has attacked a human in the past 20 months. This achievement can largely be credited to a proactive forest department and a unique citizen-state initiative involving wildlife biologists and a group of dedicated volunteers. No doubt, citizens worry for their pets, children, and their own safety. Leopards, too, pay the price of city life, falling prey to vehicles speeding along highways around the park. But people and predators live together with little drama. Mumbaiites are role models for citizens of other cities, who may have to adjust to life with foxes and coyotes or even larger animals like bears and cougars. A large metropolis with 20,000 people per square km coexisting with one of the highest densities of a big carnivore is an unprecedented situation anywhere in the world.


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