The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun has begun a four-year exercise to track the leopard population in Junnar taluka of Maharashtra, in an attempt to address rising cases of human-animal conflict across seven zones in the region. The study, commissioned by the Maharashtra forest department, aims to identify conflict hotspots and develop a list of recommendations to prevent leopard attacks.
Located 150km from Mumbai, Junnar taluka is home to a mix of scrub forests, grasslands, sugarcane, and banana farms. Farms with large crop cover provide a safe shelter to leopards and their cubs. Swapnil Deshbrathar, officer on special duty (wildlife), Mantralaya, said, “Junnar area is prone to such conflicts. The study got nod earlier this month to ensure both human and leopard population are safeguarded on priority. We have roped in WII to understand what mitigation measures can be taken.”
At a cost of ₹2 crore, the study will use 100 camera traps on a rotational basis within a 350-sqkm area across seven zones – Junnar, Otur, Khed, Shirur, Daund, Ghodegaon and Manchar. The exercise will be conducted for the next four months, and repeated every year. In March 2020, 10 leopards will be radio-collared.
According to the data collated by the forest department, there have been 5,383 total deaths between 1999 and 2018 in Junnar taluka, with 34 human deaths, 99 injuries, and 5,250 livestock deaths. In January, a five-month-old girl was killed by a leopard while she was sleeping next to her parents in Yedgaon village. In April, a woman saved her one-year-old child from a leopard attack, sustaining serious injuries. The latest kill was reported in October.
{{/usCountry}}According to the data collated by the forest department, there have been 5,383 total deaths between 1999 and 2018 in Junnar taluka, with 34 human deaths, 99 injuries, and 5,250 livestock deaths. In January, a five-month-old girl was killed by a leopard while she was sleeping next to her parents in Yedgaon village. In April, a woman saved her one-year-old child from a leopard attack, sustaining serious injuries. The latest kill was reported in October.
{{/usCountry}}“A spike in cases has been observed this year (2019), with three deaths and 15 injuries, which is the highest since 2015 (4). A majority of the cases are accidental (human-leopards crossing each other’s paths by chance). However, there is no current estimation of the number of leopards in this region. All we know is their density per sqkm is high,” said JR Gowda, deputy conservator of forest, Junnar division. “The maximum number of deaths (11) was recorded in 2010. Since then, mortalities have ranged between one and two over the years, but the current rise in incidents is a worry.”
Bilal Habib, head and scientist, department of animal ecology and conservation biology, WII, said, “We tried to understand the pattern of conflict based on data available with the forest department for the past 20 years. Details such as conflict incidents, hotspots, types of attacks, whether accidental or not, annual trend etc. have been developed. Using camera traps, we will identify emerging hotspots for conflict in the future. We will use radio-collars to observe leopard movement, and come up with appropriate recommendations.”
Gowda said the department had identified Otur, Manchar and Shirur as ‘high’ conflict zones. “Located along the eastern end of the Nashik-Pune highway, these three zones have a massive expanse of sugarcane fields, and are adjacent to river basins with high leopard numbers. The study will be initiated from here,” he said. “This is a direct consequence of rapid human encroachment in the scrub forests and creating settlements and crop fields in the periphery of buffer areas,” said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS.