According to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park officials, the number includes incidents when big cats were trapped, rescued and killed
The man-animal clashes over the last decade have increased. According to data obtained from officials at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), a total of 28 leopards were trapped and rescued in the last 10 years, that is, between 2004 and 2014.
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Graphic/Amit Bandre
A majority of the animals 24 were trapped in Aarey Milk Colony, and three were rescued from Powai. One cub was killed when a car knocked it down. The Aarey colony falls under the Mumbai Territorial Range of the Thane Forest Department. Wildlife experts and locals blame the fast-disappearing forest cover and rising encroachments.
Chandu Jadhav, a tribal who lives in Vanichapada, said, “We have never been in favour of trapping leopards, because we know humans and leopards can coexist. The main reason for the rise in man-animal conflict cases in Aarey Colony is increasing encroachment and decreasing forest cover. When people grab the leopard’s territory, the attack is natural.”
Aarey Milk Colony spans about 16 sq km, with about seven padas (villages) of the tribal Warli community. But there are more than 20 slums inside. “Trapping a leopard and trans-locating it is not a solution, because attacks will happen in the new area where the leopard is released. In Aarey Milk Colony, no agency has kept a tab on the illegal slums.
The colony is rapidly losing its forest cover; if this continues, we won’t have any leopards left. The encroachments need to be cleared to give the animals a proper territory to move,” says Krishna Tiwari, wildlife expert, Forest & Wildlife Conservation Centre.
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