IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Athreya, V.R.; Thakur, S.S.; Chaudhuri, S.; Belsare, A.V. | |
| A study of the man - leopard conflict in the Junnar Forest Division, Pune District, Maharashtra | |
| 2004 Full Book | |
The Junnar Forest Department trapped 103 leopards in three years (2001 - 2003) to try and control the rising livestock and human depredation levels in an area of about 4360 km2. Our investigations (March 2003 - March 2004) aimed at 1) understanding the nature of and the reasons leading to the steep escalation in conflict levels in 2001 in the JFD and to 2) understand the reasons for the localization of the conflict in the JFD. We have also attempted to study and relate the conflict to 1) the role of prey base depletion, 2) changes in the landscape composition, 3) increases in man-made habitat that is conducive for the leopard and 4) the intrinsic increase in leopard populations in the JFD. We used the records of the Maharashtra State Forest Department to carry out semi-structured interviews with all the affected people who lost their livestock (since October 1999) and family members (since 1993) to leopard attacks. Leopard trapping and release records available from February 2001 were also analysed. For all of the above, GPS locations provided an input for a GIS based spatial analyses of the conflict. Information on socio-economic and other parameters related to livestock depredation and attacks on humans, which are likely to have had a bearing on the conflict, were collected and analysed. As part of the project 22 leopards trapped in the Junnar (19) and the adjacent Ahmednagar (3) Divisions and slated for translocation to far off protected areas in the state were tagged with passive transponders to test the efficacy of such a management strategy. In order to obtain a more complete picture on the nature of the conflict in the state of Maharashtra, Forest Department records on capture and release of leopards from all other high intensity conflict areas in Maharashtra were analysed. Finally recommendations have been provided which if followed is likely to ease the current levels of conflict and prevent large-scale escalation of conflicts in future. |
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