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Time to minimise man-animal conflict
She said this study has now proven that leopards are in fact resident animals and may require the country to revise management strategies to deal with wildlife in human areas.
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Elusive, shy leopards avoid encountering humans, despite depending on their domestic animals for food and in fact can live close to their habitations, but in such a surreptitious way that most people do not even know they are near, leave alone getting harmed.
In order to minimize human-leopard conflicts, it is important to understand more about how these big cats live among people, indicates a year-long study conducted by Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra wildlife departments and experts on five fully-grown leopards, including three female, by tagging radio collars.
The habitat of these leopards was mainly the inhabited areas on the outskirts of Shimla and Akole town in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra.
The study, published recently in the journal PLoS One, said leopards in human areas are not always "stray" or "conflict" animals but the policy makers need to rethink India's leopard-management strategies to minimise man-animal conflict.
"Leopards in human areas have been seen as stray or conflict animals. What we commonly see is a frenzied reaction to these sightings, mostly ending in disasters for people and the animals," Vidya Athreya of Wildlife Conservation Society, associated with the study said on Monday.
She said this study has now proven that leopards are in fact resident animals and may require the country to revise management strategies to deal with wildlife in human areas.
Sandeep Rattan, a veterinary surgeon with the Himachal wildlife wing, said rather than rejecting the leopards, people in man-animal conflict zone should be sensitized to accept them.
"They (leopards) generally come near to human habitats in search of easy prey and dogs attract the leopards from far away because the predators have good hearing," Rattan said.
He said the focus should on minimising the population of stray dogs.
The studied leopards perceived as "problem animals" were captured from human-dominated areas. Two were later translocated and released more than 50 km away, while the remaining three were released near the site of capture.
According to the study, immediately after release, the two translocated animals moved away 89 km and 45 km respectively from the release sites.
By: Vishal Gulati
