Leopard attacks worry greens

With increasing attacks by leopards on people living within the periphery of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), in the western suburb of Borivli, nature lovers and forest officials are worried about how to control this serious problem.

Various solutions are being proposed by environmentalists and the immediate ones would be to bring in the scattered group of huts or 'padas' into a bigger cluster so that forest guards as well as the people themselves can guard their homes.

"There are 105 forest guards for the 103 sq km of the park and we cannot possibly deploy all of them to watch over the people," says A.R. Bharti, Deputy Conservator of Forests, SGNP.

Seven people, mostly children, have been killed by leopards this year and a few days ago an eight-year-old girl was killed by a panther even as a woman was attacked recently. This problem could accelerate if there is no political support or funds to find a solution.

As an emergency measure, Bharti suggests the relocation of these huts in one single area where people can be protected and leopards are not able to pick up lone and helpless individuals. The people can be provided with hygienic facilities until the government relocates them outside the park.

Park officials want to make the residents aware that they should stop children straying away from their homes, women going into the forests to collect firewood or the people using the forests since there are no toilets in their homes.

They are also being advised not to venture into forests at high risk times before dawn or at dusk. "Leopards often attack when they see human beings in a crouched position, especially small children," says Bittu Sehgal, editor, Sanctuary, a magazine on nature and wildlife.

"There has never been this level of inward migration into the forests," he said, and feels human pressure is making the leopards move away from their environs.

It is a pity that the social activists have been encouraging and instigating the encroachers to stay on rather than get themselves relocated, he said. Activists have even gone on to say that 200 acres of land in the forest has actually been encroached by the SGNP.

The environmentalists got a boost when a high court order directed the state government to evict encroachers and relocate those living within the SGNP.

Already, encroachers living in 49,000 huts have been removed and the remaining 11,000 huts and a population of around 45,000 will have to be provided homes elsewhere.

"What the people of this city should know is that the park provides ecological and water security to them with both the Tulsi and Vihar lakes in the park providing drinking water to the metropolis." The value of this huge green patch is estimated at Rs400 billion.

Till the people are relocated, the forest officials of the SGNP, in partnership with the Bombay Natural History Group, media, government and social activists, are planning to make people aware of the dangers of venturing out at high-risk periods. "We have also donated solar lamps to the villagers," said Bharti.

Long-term solutions to stop panthers straying out of their environment would be to build a 15-ft high and 90 km boundary wall around the park to keep wildlife and humans separated.

"This would require Rs4 million per km of wall. However, slum dwellers within the park would have to be evicted to build this wall," says Bharti. Already 25 km of the wall has been built.