Living alongside leopards in Mumbai

A curious night-time incident between a dog and a leopard was captured on CCTV in the Mumbai suburb of Goregaon earlier this year. Footage was released on Youtube and Indian newspapers printed grainy snapshots of a dog chasing a leopard out of a housing complex. The dog, a stray, soon became a hero among the building’s residents. “We have three stray dogs in the building and residents often feed them. It was shocking to see this one giving a chase to a leopard. We hope none of them falls a prey to the leopard,” one was quoted as saying. As the population of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital and largest city, continues to expand rapidly, its suburbs are straining against the boundaries of the Sanjay Gandhi national park, which is thought to be home to India’s highest concentration of leopards. It is now estimated that over a million people are living around the borders of the SGNP. Population pressure makes encounters between leopards and humans inevitable. Statistics provided by the forestry department show that there were no fatalities or injuries from leopard attacks in the Mumbai suburbs from 2009-11. Yet, since November 2011 there have been six fatalities; the last three deaths were all reported in Aarey Milk Colony, to the south of the SGNP. The most recent attack was in October 2013. People living in informal housing, or slums, may be more at risk from leopard attacks. Dogs, pigs and goats rummaging through open garbage dumps are easy prey which can attract leopards. There are rarely sanitation services in informal areas and many people have been attacked when crouching and defecating at the edges of settlements. People in slums who sleep outside to escape the sweltering heat of their shacks may be more vulnerable to attack. Unaccompanied children are most at risk as a leopard is unlikely to attack an upright adult. However, researchers claim that the dangers can be mitigated. Mumbaikars for SGNP was set up to engage local people, raising awareness about leopard behaviour, conservation and how to take precautions. Much of the project's work also involves trying to convince people against having the leopards trapped and relocated. The practice may inadvertently increase attacks on humans. In 2003, many leopards found in the expanding sugarcane plantations far to the north in Maharashtra were trapped and relocated – some injured during the trapping and then subjected to the stress of being caged and exposed to close contact with humans – to the SGNP. Released into unfamiliar areas, traumatised leopards did not have to go far to enter the city and researchers now believe that this practice may have contributed to the spate of fatal leopard attacks in the Mumbai suburbs in 2003-04. When leopards attacked people around the SGNP, the standard response again tended to be to trap them and release them elsewhere. But leopards are highly territorial and dominate their area, knowing it intimately and understanding how to avoid people. When an animal is removed, it opens up space for greater numbers of less dominant leopards to move into areas they are not familiar with. “That is a recipe for conflict,” according to Sunetro Ghosal, a researcher working with Mumbaikars for SGNP, “because now you have animals who don’t know how to deal with you.” Local politician Ravindra Waikar recently filed a public interest litigation, hoping to force the state government “to protect the lives of tribals [sic] in Aarey Colony by completely removing the leopards and wild animals from the area of Aarey Colony and shifting them elsewhere.” “This is not a solution at all,” argues Vikas Gupta, director of the SGNP. "This is the habitat for the leopard. We are encroaching as humans. So let us try to find a solution by taking proper precautions at our end, rather than trying to say that we will throw them out somewhere else.” Vidya Athreya, a biologist specialising in the study of leopards, says that more research is required to fully understand the reasons behind the more recent spate of attacks. But she says that she strongly believes “it could be either injured animals or released animals that are likely to be attacking people.” The rising prevalence of CCTV in suburban areas has sometimes contributed to fears about leopards in the past, increasing public pressure to trap the animals. Yet, CCTV footage has also provided the impetus for dialogue, as in the recent incident where CCTV shots showed a dog chasing a leopard out of a housing complex in Goregaon. The residents approached Mumbaikars for SGNP for advice, saying that they were not blaming the leopard but that they wanted to know how take precautions. The approaching monsoon season will swell the spindly foliage of the park and the suburbs into lush, thick jungle; providing greater cover for the leopards to prowl. But Mumbaikars hope that greater awareness will help them be better equipped to live alongside leopards. “Physical separation is a luxury, there has to be a mixing up of people and wildlife,” says Ghosal. “Conflict is just one expression [of the variety of relationships between humans and leopards], and also this can be momentary and can change.”