Help, there’s a tiger in my backyard

Meanwhile, an elusive man-eater leopard claimed five lives in Channagiri taluk in Davanagere district. A task force has been constituted to capture the animal. Earlier in December, near Bababudangiri hills in Chikmagalur district, a youth,who was clearing the forest fell victim to a tiger.

At the same time, many villagers around Manchanabele forests, 35 km from Bangalore complained that three leopards were preying on their lifestock.

These are just a few human-wildlife conflicts reported from various parts of Karnataka in the month of November alone. The problem is apparently growing steadily all over the state. Most of the conflicts are those between human beings, on the one hand, and elephants and big cats, like tigers and leopards, on the other.

Explains, Dr Ullas Karanth, a wildlife biologist, “Tigers are basically shy and need more space to hide due to their size. They prey on large animals and prefer to live alone in a marked territory. The only time when tigers come in conflict with human beings is when there is surplus production and some of them spill over while establishing their territory. There is no point in getting emotional about these species. They have to be killed.

Trying to relocate the animal back in the foresthas its own adverse effects the animal may get killed while establishing itself. And our zoos have limited capacity.”

Whenever the crisis crops up in terms of loss of a life either of man or animal there is a hue and cry. But later the issue fades from public memory. The human-wildlife problem is considered a perennial one and no concrete efforts are being made to find a solution.

It was in the mid-80s, when Pavaghada a sleepy town in Tumkur district, hit the national headlines after wolves began attacking people, that this conflict suddenly hit the headlines. Most of the victims of the wolves were children. The government then opted for the only solution possible many wolves were shot down by professional hunters.

The next major crisis was reported from Kadur taluk in Chikmagalur district. Several leopards were living near villages around Kadur, which has a rocky terrain. When some of the leopards began attacking human beings, the Forest Department had no option but to eliminate a few. About 18leopards were shot down between 1995 and 1997 in the region but the problem continues.

But why is Bangalore likely to face this problem more than other Indian cities? The fact is that the density of the forests round it has thinned considerably. All that is left of the thick forests of yore are rocky hills and shrubs. Apart from this trend, quarrying activity in the forests have forced many of these carnivores to migrate to the fringes and prey on the livestock of villagers.

That the forest area around Bangalore is dwindling at a rapid rate is no secret. The forests near Magadi, Satanur, Kanakpura and Ramanagaram once the habitat of numerous wild animals have been subjected to extensive quarrying. Along with quarrying, there is the ever-present crime of poaching. Both these activities have forced the leopards here to migrate to the fringes. Some of these leopards are being killed by villagers, who resort to either snaring or poisoning them.

Besides this, the elephant menace has been a commonphenomenon in the state. News of elephants trampling someone or raiding agricultural farms is getting increasingly common. In December 1996, a herd of elephants had reached the fringes of the city, and the visitation occurred the following year as well. In 1999, elephants made at least three visits. Of course, each time the Forest Department has successfully chased away. But it is a constant battle. Wildlife experts say that the phenomenon of elephants straying into the city is because the elephant corridors all over the state have been disturbed.

The elephant corridors within the contiguous forest tract connecting Bannerughatta, Cauvery Elephant Sanctuary, MM Hills, BR Hills, Bandipur and Nagarahole, have today become fragmented, thanks to developmental work and encroachment by agriculturists.

So how is this problem, that is only going to increase as forests dwindle and cities swell, to be tackled? Dr Raman Sukumar, an expert in Asiatic elephants and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science ispragmatic: “The elephant population is not viable in some places and those elephants have to be captured and released carefully in good areas. The movement of these elephants have to be kept under constant vigilance as these elephants can walk back to the same area, even if it is 100 km away.

If they try to come back to old territory, then the elephant should be simply taken into captivity. Once the elephant gets a taste for crops, it becomes a habitual crop raider.”

Road to rehabilitation
So far, there have been innumerable examples of capturing and rehabilitating trouble creating wild animals. However, there is no feedback on the fate of these rehabilitated animals.

On two occasions, however, leopards were radio-collared to check their behaviour after rehabilitation. The first experiment at radio-collaring was made some years ago by Dr Ullas Karanth, who came across a leopard which was captured in a farm house near Nanjangud in Mysore district. The forest department decided torehabilitate the animal in the Nagarahole forests. The leopard was radio-collared before being releasing into the core area of the forest.

The signals from the radio collar revealed that the leopard did not move from the place where it was released for over two days. The third day, the leopard had moved about 12 km towards Kerala. It again settled down near a village on the Kerala border and continued to prey on livestock.

The second experiment was made very recently. Two years ago, villagers near Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary found two orphaned leopard cubs and handed them over to forest department officials. Instead of keeping them in a zoo, the Forest officials decided to experiment while rehabilitating the cubs to the same forest.

Owners of Tusker Trail Resort in the fringes of the Sanctuary came forward to be part of the experiment. The department officials also sought the help of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to assist them in the rehabilitation programme. When the cubs were 18 months old,a closed large enclosure was built in the core area. The cubs were let into the enclosure after radio-collaring them. Slowly, the cubs began venturing outside the enclosure and began hunting on small prey.

However, one of the cubs was killed while trying to prey on a large animal suspected to be a gaur or sambar. The second one was successful in adapting to its own territory. Now, the leopard is pregnant and is expected to deliver in December. Dr Sukumar, who assisted the forest department in rehabilitating the leopard, feels that experiments like this would help us know more about the behaviour of these animals.