Kashmir: Living with leopards

DW (English)

Overlapping forest-human habitats can lead to deadly encounters - for both humans and wildlife! How one NGO in Kashmir is trying to respond to the growing conflict.

Transcript

00:00Ajit Kumar's shaved head is a sign of grieving for the passing away of his son.

00:08His family, like many in the group of people here, migrate seasonally from Bihar to Kashmir

00:13in search of work.

00:15The tragedy that took the life of his six-year-old son happened just three days before Ajit had

00:19planned to return home for the off-season.

00:21I was cooking in the night close to my hut, and my son came to the door to ask me for

00:29some water to drink.

00:31Before I could turn around and give him water, I heard him briefly yell my name, and then

00:38he disappeared.

00:45This is not the first leopard attack in Kashmir, but I am discreet, and unfortunately won't

00:50be the last.

00:52Something Alia Mir knows only too well.

00:55She works for the NGO Wildlife SOS, and her team is here to collect the details of the

01:01attack and track the leopard responsible.

01:07Locals are terrified and eager to share whatever they know, including pictures from the night

01:12of the tragedy.

01:15They show Alia around, who keeps an eye out for any tracks and traces left behind by the

01:20leopard to try to reconstruct its regular routes.

01:27Having marked out the possible perimeter of the animal's area of activities, they collect

01:32the last few paw prints they can find.

01:34Whether it's a bear, a leopard or any other wild animal, they tend to attack women and

01:40children more, especially children, because children are smaller and they can't fight

01:44against them.

01:45The leopard goes for the throat and drags you away, so it's much easier to do that with

01:50children.

01:51Don't let them out alone after sunset.

01:58The team has decided to use a trap to try and capture the leopard.

02:03They're stealthy animals and notoriously difficult to corner.

02:07But Alia's team hopes they can lure it into the cage with the right bait.

02:12With the trap all set, the migrant workers and local villagers have many tense nights

02:16ahead.

02:17They will need to be more careful once the sun sets, at least until the leopard is caught.

02:23Intizar Suhail, the chief wildlife warden at the local wildlife department, works in

02:28close coordination with Alia.

02:30Rise has been gradual, but it's now for the past two decades almost, almost 20 years,

02:36but the incidents have increased and the ecology of the area has also changed.

02:42So this is why the leopards have come down and they are living among ourselves now.

02:48Besides, we had in the earlier days, where our forests ended, there was a buffer then,

02:55before these orchards began.

02:59These buffers were largely treeless tracts of land between the mountain woodlands and

03:04human settlements.

03:06Up in the forests, leopards used to roam free and migrate all along the buffer zones without

03:11crossing them.

03:13But infrastructure activities like roads, pipelines and transmission lines have cut

03:17through the wild forests in many areas, pushing animals deeper into the valleys.

03:24And the old buffer zones are now used for commercial plantations, explains activist

03:29and writer Raja Muzaffar.

03:31We are on the outskirts of Srinagar and the border of Badgam district.

03:35They've made these huge plantations here their home.

03:39And this is where they say the leopards now live.

03:41In the night, they go out from here to the nearby populated areas, hunt dogs and return.

03:48To show how these areas used to be, Muzaffar takes us to his office in the city.

03:55He wants to show us images from a movie shot here in Badgam in the 1960s.

04:04Someone sent me this link a few days ago.

04:08And you can see the Kareva on the road to Charare Sharif.

04:13The hills are completely naked here.

04:15There are no plantations, trees or any other kind of vegetation.

04:23There are no social forestry plantations or other trees, except maybe a couple of almond

04:28trees.

04:29But if you go to the same place now, it looks like a forest.

04:40For now, the authorities are working with NGOs like Wildlife SOS to rescue and relocate

04:46animals to the nearest wild forests, while injured animals are housed within shelters

04:51like these.

04:57For her part, however, Alia hopes that they can find proactive solutions in the future.

05:06Since this is a multifaceted issue, the solutions should also be multidisciplinary, where we

05:15should try to modify the human behavior through education and awareness, and where we should

05:24deter the animals towards coming to the human habitations.

05:30And lastly, we should create some buffer zones for these animals.

05:36Meanwhile, Alia's team remains at the ready to respond to the numerous calls they receive

05:41every week.

05:44Like many others who are at the forefront of this issue, she believes the answer may

05:48ultimately lie in learning to coexist with the animals that human actions have displaced.

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