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If you are ever going to read one of my rants it should be this one. It's not a time for backslapping but gains are being made. Sometimes in tiny increments, sometimes giant strides. Endless hours in jungles, mountains... orphaned cubs, dead leopards... wild leopards in wild surroundings... and meetings, many meetings, in offices, coffee shops, airport car parks, bus stops, guest houses, tents and on dark jungle evenings in remote villages and camps.
The first rehabilitation post is about to be built in a remote confidential location. After several delays, leopard cubs Tika and Ram will continue their rehabilitation there under the supervision of Dr Asis Gurung with assistance from the Biodiversity Conservation Centre team with assisting handler Tikaram Tharu also key to their progress. This new post is modeled off the strategy I used with the leopard Asa at Leopard Camp in the Annapurna but with improvements in infrastructure, strategy and particularly in support. The post will also have application for research and anti-poaching in the area.
A second post is mooted for the west of Nepal and I am sure this will go ahead. Right now I am in the Kaski where there is a serious problem with many conflict situations and leopard deaths in the last few years. I am in discussion with District Forest Officer Prabhat Sapkota and a rescue/rehab centre has been approved in principle by the government.
In other parts of the country particularly in the far west as well as in Kavre (just examples) there are villagers living in fear as there have been many human fatalities after leopard attacks. Young children are most at risk in these areas, I hope people have finally understood when I've stated in my blogs, particularly in the last two years, that there has to be a lot of sensitivity around these issues. It's all very well someone thousands of miles away behind the safety of a laptop calling these animals cute when the sheer reality for those living among leopards can mean a lot of fear. Yes they are magnificent, truly magnificent but wild leopards are serious animals, often very dangerous and unpredictable.
Conflict mitigation research and improvements are ongoing, that will never end but it requires both short term and long term solutions that are effective not slap dash. There's no point using practices that leopards will quickly habituate to thus making the situation even more serious in the near future.
There is a lot at stake. The leopard's range is far and wide unlike their rock star relatives the tiger and snow leopard which inhabit narrower and fragmented habitats. All these great cats are key umbrella species, ecosystems depend on them. Their relationship with each other and their relationship with us, these things have to be better understood for more effective conservation and management.
As I wrote in the first sentence this is not a time for cheers, there is too much to be done. The current situation here in Nepal has of course made things even more difficult, I've got to admit sometimes there have been days when I wonder how the hell we can pull it all off... but it only needs a second to reflect on the marginalization that the leopard is enduring as well as many thousands of people living in leopard habitats and then the realization strikes that despite the magnitude of the task we have to keep going. So a Task Force structure is on the table but action has to continue and increase...
This initiative is a collaboration of the Department of Forests, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the National Trust for Nature Conservation (including the Biodiversity Conservation Centre and the Annapurna Area Conservation Project) and WildTiger Conservation Research and Development. Independent Nepali NGOs and researchers are also being consulted as well as there being constant communications internationally.
