Published in Dwarka Express on 4.11.23

After five nightmarish days for the local residents, the elusive leopard in Bangalore South was located and killed by the forest officials. The leopard was seen roaming freely near MS Dhoni School at Kudlu Main Road in South East Bangalore which is hardly 20 KMs from Bannerghatta National Park. It is a debatable question why a leopard should be killed when there are ways to trap it and relocate it. The Chief Conservator of Forest S.S. Lingaraja said that the Chief Wildlife warden has already given permission to shoot the animal at sight. There may be an argument that the forest officials were not able to locate it for 5 days and people’s life was more important. Let us analyze the whole episode

The video footages in social media suggest that the leopard first got into the net and immediately after that, there was a shooting sound. The debated question was why the young adult Leopard was shot after it was trapped into the net. The animal was dead within a few minutes of capture and it could not be revived. The Forest Department could have used tranquilizer shot to sedate the animal which might have saved it. Of course, the scared locals would laud the forest department’s action because there is a big relief from the scare.

The forest department rolled out a massive combing operation for 5 days and even summoned the Leopard Task Force from Mysore. Drones, pugmarks and droppings were used by patrolling by gunman who admit that they could not make a breakthrough in their operations. A 75 strong team was clueless to trace the animal in this congested area. Reports say that a veterinarian was also attacked. It is understandable that people’s life must be protected, but the modes operandi make our eye brows raised. In the ever-increasing man-animal conflict, the big blame by man is that an elephant or a tiger has entered into human territory who comfortably forget that we have entered into their territory. At the end of the day, shooting a valuable wildlife could have been avoided, and truly there is no voice for the voiceless!

Jim Corbett, the hunter turned conservator might have killed a few man eater tigers in early 20^th century when technology was unknown. With drones and other latest technologies, tranquilizing and sedating an animal could have used by the forest conservators. Death is a punishment for a heinous crime. What sin the leopard have done in the present case? Forests are stripped and forest laws are tailored to allow encroachment. Either it is a state sponsored ‘encroachment’ under the garb of development, ignoring sustainability or it may be a cancerous intrusion of buffer areas of jungles. A recent effort to reduce the buffer areas of the river ecosystem from 1 KM to 500 Meters near Bangalore is one such bad example. We reiterate what we wrote in this column on 15.10.23. “Encroachment is a menace if it is unauthorized. But it becomes a rightful activity if it is permitted by the law”