Can These Radio-Collared Leopards Help In Reducing Human-Animal Conflict In Mumbai's Aarey?

From August last year, there was a series of attacks on humans by leopards in and around the Aarey colony in Mumbai.

A total of nine leopard attacks were recorded within a span of two months, in the area that is close to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), causing panic among the residents of Aarey.

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SGNP is a 100 sq km urban forest reserve and home to over 40 resident leopards, making it a high leopard-density area. Residents living in proximity to SGNP have had close encounters with these elusive big cats.

But the recent attacks, the first which happened on August 31, caught everyone by surprise as it was the first time a leopard, which is a highly secluded animal had attacked a human there since 2017.

Within a few days, a leopard was captured by the Forest Department, but the attacks did not stop, which resulted in more panic as many believed that more than one big cat was attacking humans.

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Two more leopards were captured in the following weeks and on November 3, the real culprit was finally caught in a trap cage.

According to Forest Department officials, it was one female leopard - officially named C32 which was attacking humans, and the other three previously captured ones had nothing to do with it.

With the capture of C32 the leopard attacks in Aarey have stopped, but as the big cat population there grows, so is the fear of rising human-animal conflicts.

In a bid to mitigate human leopard conflict and further leopard conservation, the Maharashtra Forest Department permitted radio-collaring of five leopards to study their movements, dispersal, home range size, habitat.

BCCL

Under the joint initiative of the Forest Department, the Wildlife Conservation Society-India and Wildlife SOS, three leopards have been radio-collared so far.

Last week ¡®Kranti¡¯ becomes the third leopard to be fitted with a radio collar in SGNP in the two-year project to study leopards and help mitigate human-leopard conflict in the heavily populated urban landscape of Mumbai.

Wildlife SOS

Wildlife SOS veterinarian Dr, Bangar successfully tranquilized a six-year-old female leopard who roams the Yeoor hills range in Thane. A GPS radio collar was fitted on this leopard by a team of WCS-India and Wildlife SOS. WCS-India team included Dr. Vidya Athreya and Nikit Surve.

Wildlife SOS has also been collaborating with Maharashtra Forest Dept for over a decade to run the Leopard Rescue Center in Junnar which houses over 30 rescued leopards.

¡°We¡¯re expecting good data on human leopard interaction through this collared animal. Two more leopards will be radio-collared in the coming days. This leopard was named Kranti as she was collared on Makar Sankranti and Kranti in Marathi also means revolution as she will enable us to better understand urban leopards,¡± G Mallikarjuna, Conservator of Forest and Director, SGNP, said.

Wildlife SOS

Two leopards were fitted with radio collars in the first phase.

On 20 February, a female leopard L115, aged around three named Savitri, was radio-collared and released in the southern area of SGNP.

On 22 February, a male leopard L 93, aged between 6 and 8 years named Maharaja was radio-collared on the northern periphery of the SGNP.

In addition to this, a female leopard C33, which is the sibling of C32 and was one of the suspected human attacking big cats that were captured in October last year was also released in November after being fitted with a radio collar.

"Leopards of Mumbai are different as they have been adapted to living with humans, within a city. But the growing population can lead to human-leopard conflicts. That is one of the reasons why this project is being undertaken. The data from this study will help the Forest Department and WCS get a better picture of their range, including the areas they visit frequently. These will be used to find a way to mitigate the human-leopard conflict," a spokesperson of Wildlife SOS told Indiatimes.

BCCL/ Representational Image

"We at WCS-India in collaboration with the Maharashtra Forest Department have been studying the leopards of SGNP for the past ten years. We have been doing a lot of work here including camera trapping and involving citizens in monitoring and doing awareness sessions. The radio-collaring initiative was started last year," Vidya Athreya, WCS India Director told Indiatimes.

Talking about the results of the study so far, Vidya said they have been able to identify some behavioural patterns of the leopards.

"They rest largely during the daytime and move at night. We also identified some of the roads they use and we know where they are crossing. They avoid people as much as possible. Once we radio collar the three more leopards, we expect to get a wider picture," she said.

Wildlife SOS

She also said that contrary to popular belief there is no increase in human-leopard conflicts in SGNP.

"The last time a leopard attacked a human in Aarey was in 2017, and it was immediately identified and captured. Even in the case of C32, it was also soon identified and was captured. This is an aberrant behavior as leopards are generally scared of humans and avoid contact. But when an individual animal starts attacking, there is some behavioural change, which we don't understand. The reasons that we or the locals can say are opinions or educated guesses," she said.

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