The human-wildlife conflict in this mountainous region appears to be worsening due to lack of effective action by the authorities to mitigate the conflict.
The people were earlier afraid of confrontations with bears and are now living in fear of leopard in the Paika ward of Joshimath. On Monday, a woman was attacked by a leopard when she had gone to collect fodder in the jungle. The big cat inflicted claw wounds on the woman’s head. She was taken to the community health centre with the help of locals.
This is not the first such instance in the Joshimath area. Every year during the winter season, the people living in the rural areas live in fear of attacks by wild animals.
Generally, whenever a leopard kills a human in the State, the forest department officials bow down to public pressure and after declaring the animal a man-eater, get a hunter to shoot down the big cat. However, this approach has failed to resolve the human-wildlife conflict in the State, especially in the mountainous regions of the State.
At the onset of winter, many wild animals come down to the lower altitudes as the higher reaches of the State receive snowfall. Both the predators and their prey animals climb down to the lower altitudes which in turn brings them into increased conflict with the humans.
The Forest Department has done little towards implementing the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to curb the human-leopard conflict. Following the recent attack on the woman by a leopard, the locals have become afraid of another attack by the big cat. The Nanda Devi national park sub divisional officer Sarvesh Kumar said that the big cat attacked the woman but is not a man-eater.
However, the department has sent its team to patrol the area where the attack took place. Wildlife activists point out that the continued poaching of herbivores is forcing the leopards to prey on domesticated animals which increases the chances of them coming into conflict with the humans.