Workshop to resolve man-leopard conflict

January 30, 2007

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NDTV Correspondent

Wednesday, January 24, 2007 (New Delhi):

The Wildlife Trust of India, International Fund for Animal Welfare and

the Ministry of Environment and Forest are jointly organizing a

national workshop on human-leopard conflict management in Delhi.

The workshop for two days will prepare a draft National Policy on

human-leopard conflict management to be presented to the government.

Last week mobs of people killed two leopards in Nasik and Pulwama.

At the conference forest department officials, conservationists and

cat scientists hope to come up with a framework to deal with the conflict.

No policy

The Director of Wildlife Trust of India Vivek Menon says, " there is no

policy, right now every state dept does what it needs to do on the

ground and it is a practical approach " .

" We hope to bring about a framework and hopefully that will work on

the ground, " he said.

Chief wildlife wardens from six affected states spoke about the

problems on the ground.

It was clear that the forest department needs support from the police

and the fire brigade.

Biologists pointed out that besides the presence of high numbers of

prey species for leopards such as dogs and goats in rural habitats,

capturing and translocating animals is also one of the reasons for

greater conflict.

" Leopards as felines just like your average domestic cat has a

tendency to home in and will try to find its way back as they are very

territorial, " say wildlife activist Vidya Atreya.

" You don't want a leopard wandering back home over distances when

there are so many people in its path " .

Unless there is greater awareness about both the biology and science

of leopard behaviour and a concerted effort to tackle the problem the

conflict is only going to intensify.

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