Big cats too are vulnerable

Big cats too are vulnerable

Views: 1544 | October 03, 2018

The theme for wildlife week this year is ‘Big cats under threat’. Often the wild predators are more scared of humans than vice versa. A mob can play havoc on a ‘dangerous’ carnivore, as revealed in field tales from Akole.

(Ghule recounts…) On Mahashivratri festival, I got a call at 1.30 p.m. A leopard was trapped inside a house at Malizap village. We set up a trap cage at the door of the house and blocked all other escape routes.

While we waited for the leopard to be trapped, I asked the family, “How did this leopard get in?”

One of them replied, “Our guests and the entire family had just finished lunch, when a large animal walked in. The leopard looked at us casually, and walked past the kitchen. We came to our senses and quickly shut the kitchen door.”

I asked, “How did a leopard come to the house in broad daylight?”

“The leopard was drinking water at the canal. Some kids threw stones at it and it tried to escape. There was no place for it to hide so it kept walking, followed by the stone-pelting kids. It entered the village pursued by a mob. Our door was open so it went inside to hide.”

A crowd of about 5000 people gathered to watch the capture operation. I caught a glimpse of the frightened leopard hiding in the kitchen loft. Before calling us, the villagers tried to scare it away by bursting firecrackers. But that had freaked the animal out, and it didn’t budge from its hiding place. We were in for a long wait

At 3 a.m., we removed a few bricks from the wall of the house with the owner’s permission, and poked the leopard with a long bamboo pole. It ran out and was trapped.

© Vinod More, Shreyas Deshpande, Girish Punjabi

It was Jai Maharashtra.

(Vidya remembers…) When I arrived in the village from Pune at 3 a.m., I saw women dragging half-asleep children to see the leopard. Even at that time of the morning, there were at least 100 people hanging around the house. Jai had just been trapped, and we had to let people look at him first before we could take him away.

It was only later that we noticed Jai was injured. The collar seemed to have caused a big open wound on his neck. Any further delay in veterinary help and he might have died. It was sheer good luck that he was trapped in the house because he never went into the cage trap which we had set for the last four months.

Throughout the 20-day period when the vets treated Jai, Ghule tended him daily. It was a horrible time for Ghule and I. Jai held a special place in our hearts. He had been a caring elder brother when his mother had her litter. He had never hurt anyone. Villagers often thought Jai was the mother and Lakshai was the cub, as she was just 45 kilograms and he was close to 60.

After Jai recovered, we released him near Akole. However, I felt terrible that the collar had been the cause of his terrible wound.

Weeks later, Ghule and I were near the village’s old pump house. A goatherd said a leopard often slept in the cool building. From the scratches on the wall, we figured the animal had to jump down five metres onto a pipe, and then walk up a flight of stairs to the hut that housed the pump. Under the switchboards was a cool dug place where big fellow would probably lie in peace.

A few weeks ago, the goatherd said he had opened the door of the building, and startled the sleeping leopard. It dashed off in the opposite direction and escaped by squeezing between two tin sheets that formed the wall of the pump house. We realized from the hair and dried blood that the sharp edge of one of the sheets must have sliced Jai. The collar didn’t allow the wound to heal, worsening the wound.

Despite suffering from pain, Jai hadn’t retaliated when those kids threw stones at him. It illustrates how well-behaved these animals are, and how much we underestimate them. Jai must have become a father by now.

© Vinod More, Shreyas Deshpande, Girish Punjabi

(Ghule adds…) During this project, I learnt that if we trap an adult leopard and move it far away, even 100-150 kilo- metres, it definitely returns to the original site. If it is a young animal (in the teenager category of humans) then it might learn to live near its release site. Just like a house cat would. Also I experienced that no matter how many individuals you remove, there will always be leopards in the same place period, Hence trapping and releasing is not the way to clear an area of leopards. On the contrary, such an operation irritates them and makes them unpredictable. They don’t know the new territory, where to hunt, or where to hide safely. Such animals, if hungry, can attack young children.

To reduce livestock losses to leopards, villagers should keep their animals in well-protected shelters at night. If leopards do not get enough animals to feed on, they won’t be able to have cubs. If we take good care of pregnant cows, their calves will be strong and thrive. But, if we do not provide adequate care, the calves are unlikely to survive. I am sure this holds true for leopards.

Just as urban parents do not allow their children to go out after dark, villagers living in leopard areas should not allow little children to go outdoors unattended after nightfall.

Sleeping outdoors at night should also be avoided even though leopards have not hurt anyone so far. People should tap a stick on the ground while walking at night, so nearby leopards on hearing the sound of a human will stay out of sight and avoid a confrontation.

Written by Ashok Ghule, a local farmer and Forest Department employee who worked in WCS - India project, and wildlife biologist Vidya Athreya.

The write-up was published in the NINA Special Report as part of Waghoba Tales written by Ashok Ghule, Vidya Athreya, John Linnell and Morten Odden.

Photo credits: Rujan Sarkar (Cover)

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