In the image you can see the spot where six year old Rishi Ram Ghimre was taken by a leopard. His mother was standing very close to him at the time, around 6pm, as the little boy played. His body was found in a deep gully the next morning about six hundred metres away. This is one of ten cases we're looking at, of children being taken by leopard in the area. We'll be back at this site soon with mitigation strategy. Leopards are very active in the area, a goat was taken close by just three nights before I took the image.
Each case has its own set of dynamics which need to be understood before applying strategy. The location you see in the image is very near a school. This of course adds to the fear. In this particular instance we could not speak to the parents of Rishi Ram, they have moved away, the trauma is just too great. The locals were very helpful, they want and need help.
However each case does show up commonalities, some of them quite brutal in the way the children are taken and the difficulty for people as they listen to a screaming child being taken away. Then there is the moment the child stops making noise and the frantic searching by villagers, usually with inadequate lighting. There is a lot of fear and panic.
High vegetation crops close by are a common factor. The leopard is the most stealthy, most effective hunter of the big cats. These crops make perfect hiding places from which to observe and plan an attack. Often they are nearby community or private forests, this is drama which takes place in everyday Nepal, everyday South Asia, far from the protected areas like National Parks.
The main common factor is the lack of natural prey species for leopards in these areas. This is part of the vicious circle. Deer, wild boar and other animals are hunted as bush meat, a food source for communities in economic difficulties. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out the ramifications. Livestock, dogs and sometimes people become the alternative prey for leopards.
The middle hills of Nepal are tough terrain. Life is not easy in any of these areas anyway and issues since the recent earthquakes have added to the struggle. Landslides, unreliable weather patterns (affecting crop production) and the harsh financial realities are part of life here. Attempting to co-exist with predators like leopards means further stress.
We've come up with a number of strategies to help mitigate conflict, I'll enlarge more on this soon within the "Living with Leopards" concept. There are a few legal matters to tie up but nothing is assured in the overall situation, it requires ongoing evolution of strategy.
Retaliation towards leopards in the name of safety is a natural reaction. In the main people are incredibly tolerant, the frustration for many is the lack of help they receive in a seriously difficult situation. Wildlife crime does lift its ugly head, it is an important factor, leopard skins and bones are worth a lot of money... and to people with limited resources, well, you figure it out.
This brings me again to the point that until economic hardship is alleviated this struggle will continue. Yes, it's true there are a lot of illegal firearms still in these areas, a result of the war and one of the strategies we are implementing is to introduce the concept of shooting with a camera and not a gun. But this takes resources and does not solve the problem of simply putting food on the table.
A couple of days ago, not far from where I write this, a female leopard with four cubs entered a padi field about a hundred metres from jungle and very close to a village. The situation was monitored closely, the dart team was ready and locals were alert. The mother leopard led her young cubs to safety, back to the jungle in the dark of night.
No one was hurt. It was in an area, which by Nepal standards, has reasonable economic stability.
Get my drift?
More field work now but I'll update on the "Living with Leopards" concept soon...
