Big cats pose threat to life of locals in Pauri

The human-leopard conflict in the Damdawal range of the Garhwal forest division in Pauri district  has assumed serious proportions with the authorities so far failing to ascertain an effective way to mitigate this.A leopard was recently trapped in a cage but locals are still anxious for their safety from big cats in the area.

The last week of July two persons were injured and some domesticated animals were killed in leopard attacks within a period of four days.

Ekeshwar block of the Damdawal forest range has been experiencing human-leopard conflict since 1988 when a leopard had killed many persons in the area.

This range is considered to be highly sensitive from the view point of human-leopard conflict in the Garhwal forest division.Recently, a leopard was captured in a cage fixed in Bamoli on the night of August 1. The forest department had set up the cage after a person was injured in a leopard attack in Bamoli on July 29.

The villagers informed the forest department about the capture after which the department staff took the caged big cat away.

The Garhwal forest division in Pauri district has  six ranges out of which Pokhra, Pauri and Damdawal are considered highly sensitive from the human-leopard conflict point of view.Since 2012, at least 22 persons have died in leopard attacks in the Garhwal forest division and of these, 12 deaths were reported from the Ekeshwar block of the Damdawal forest range. During this period six leopards were also killed in the forest division by authorized shooters and of these four big cats were killed in Ekeshwar block. Similarly, six leopard were caged in this period with four of them being caged in Ekeshwar.

It should be mentioned here that even though hunting wildlife is illegal, poaching appears to be affecting the prey base of the big cat. With deer, wild boar and other wildlife preferred by the leopard being poached by humans, the big cats are turning towards human settlements in search of easy prey like dogs and other domestic animals.