Living with Silicon City leopards

'Leopard in Prestige campus yesterday early morning’, ‘It is still there and residents are under house arrest’ read a social media forward. ‘Leopard enters Bengaluru apartment, creates scare’, ‘Leopard’s cat-walk strikes fear in housing complex in Begur’ read headlines of two mainstream media reports.

These social media forwards and news reports were in response to an incident of a leopard walking quietly in the middle of the night through an apartment complex on the southern parts of Bengaluru. Similar headlines were recently reported from Chamarajanagar, the southernmost district headquarters of Karnataka when a leopard was captured on CCTV entering housing quarters of a medical college.

Leopards have been living in these areas for a long, long time. However, as urban areas are gobbling up wilderness areas, people have got closer to leopard habitats. But leopards continue to survive like shadows without being noticed. Nevertheless, in the recent days due to the extensive usage of CCTV, leopards are ‘seen’ more often.

Once such incidents are captured on CCTV, the footage is widely circulated on social media creating panic and anxiety among people. As it is, with social media, along with news, also comes fake news creating more fear among people.

This panic results in communities demanding that the leopard be captured by the forest department.

The pressure ensues that the authorities place cages and at times even capture leopards and translocate them or take them to lifetime captivity. Unfortunately, this is not merely with leopards but also with sloth bears, elephants and some other conflict-prone wildlife species. These days, CCTV footages have become one of leopards’ biggest enemies.

It’s not just in and around large cities that such incidents have occurred or have leopard habitats been converted to large building complexes. Residential schools (Kittur Rani Chennamma Residential School, Thimmarajipura adjoining BRT Tiger Reserve), research institutes (Indian Institute of Science, near Challakere) and many such projects have taken over leopard habitats.

Authorities have to ensure that such large complexes are not built in or adjoining leopard habitats. Even if they are built, there should be acceptance of the presence of leopards and other wildlife, and suitable measures have to be taken to ensure that the original inhabitants of the area are allowed to exist in their habitats. But most times, the construction has led to ‘conflict’, the leopard has been made the villain and considered as a ‘problem’.

Ideal solution

Though the ideal solution is to avoid building in such areas, the demand for land, due to the burgeoning human population and economic development, is booming at unprecedented rates taking away sizeable leopard habitats. Leopards continue to survive in some of their former natural habitats by adapting to the new sub-optimal habitats and feeding on domestic prey such as livestock, poultry and pye-dogs. The critical mindset of acceptance can come through sustained education as most urban dwellers are not accustomed to living with large wildlife in their backyards.

In Karnataka, leopards survive adjoining several of our cities and towns including Mysuru, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Ramanagara, Udupi etc. Our studies show that about 40 leopards survive in Bannerghatta National Park on the southern edge of Bengaluru, and perhaps an equal number of leopards live in areas adjoining the tech city. Hence, it is important to understand what do we do if leopards are seen near human habitations.

Communities need not panic merely because a leopard is seen in the vicinity. Leopards are shy and elusive animals; they avoid people. If they are sighted, no one should try to get closer to the animal to take photographs or videos. Mobbing the animal could lead to untoward incidents. Very importantly, do not spread or believe in fake news, or sensationalise any information. This will panic everyone in the area but will also put pressure on the authorities to capture the animal.

Many a time, dog footprints are circulated and claimed as leopard pugmarks. In 2016, after Bengaluru’s VIBGYOR school incident, there were pictures of cheetahs (which is extinct in India) and images of dog footprints circulated claiming leopards were still around the school which created panic among people leading to closure of schools and other problems.

Communities, apartment associations, and the general public can seek the help of people working on leopards so that they can learn how to deal with situations if they see leopards. In Bengaluru and many other places, we have carried out several outreach programmes and advised communities, gated communities, schools, research institutes and many others on managing such situations. This had a positive response and in many of these areas, people have accepted leopard presence in their vicinity. Capturing or translocating leopards, until there is a serious problem such as human death, will not solve any issues. We need to co-exist with leopards. Many rural communities do this; it is just that most urban people aren’t used to large wildlife being next to their doorsteps. But as urban areas expand bringing them closer to wildlife habitats, urban dwellers have to start educating others on living alongside leopards.

(The writer holds a doctorate in leopard ecology and conservation)