In life there are the right times to smile and the right times not to...
CASE STUDY - Sabitri Paudel is in a very bad state of mind nearly five years after her four year son was killed by a leopard. It's a tragic story, Sabitri and her husband Shiva soon moved away from the small village where the event took place. They now live quite close by to where I'm writing this but the village isn't far away, leopards still roam, attacking livestock and the memory of that terrible day is still strong for the people living there.
In this particular case there had been leopard attacks on people in the months before the leopard took the little boy. I'm not going to go into further detail now because this is an ongoing study and one of several cases being used to increase understanding. This understanding is in parallel with action as we test and implement strategies for human - wildlife conflict mitigation. The leopard, a species having no choice but to make serious behaviour modifications because of human induced changes to habitat, is our focus. Understanding leopard behaviour, I have to admit it consumes me.
Technology is a major part of the strategy. Here Batgirl Bidhya tests two different types of camera. One can send a message to devices so that real time data can be used to deal with conflict and wildlife poaching situations, all part of the scope I'm working long hours on at the moment. Bidhya is smiling, she smiles a lot, her friends tease her because at a young age she already has "smile lines"... but Bidhya has a very serious side as well. Her dedication to the issues we're working on is fantastic, she has poured many hours into helping me directly as well as other projects. Technology is extremely important but having the right people, with the right balance of skill, passion and determination is vital.
