THE NAME - common leopard
- i s a fallacy,giving birth to the myth that this beautiful 'Prince of cats' is common.Cast a glance at these statistics to lat that fiction to rest.over just three days -- February 11 to 14 -- this year.the Wildlife Crime Control Burea(WCCB)seized eight leopard skins.From january 1,2009 till date we've lost 69leopards - ensared ,poisoned,or recovered as skin and bone.Last year,we lost close to 150 officially.And this is just a fraction of the actual trade;most of it goes undetected.
Yet,there's none of the outrage the leopard's celebrity cousin ,the Bengal Tiger,inspires.So what if it's endangered,if not more ?The WCCB reckons ,for every tiger skin.20leopard skins are seized.The killing has escalated,boosted by spiralling demand and increasing returns on the leopard derivatives.The bones are used as subtitles in traditional Chinese medicine ,as tigers numbers dwindle.Leopard claws are considered a lucky charm.It's a good market evidently:one seizure in January 2000 yeilded 18,080 claws-over 1,200 dead animals.
As for the skin,blame it (at least partially)on Jacqueline Kennedy who draped a leopard skin across her shoulders,signifying the world that the spotted fur with its 'wonderful fall' was chic.Everyone wanted it.Thousands of leopards were sacrificed in the early 1960's to feed fashion.leopard numbers plummeted.Cosequently ,a ban was imposed on commercial trade in leopard derivatives.
But the black market continues to flourish.And so does the slaughter.
The curse of the leopard goes beyond fur and bones.It is at the centre of severe man-animal conflicts .If you were to map conflict zones in Indian,you'd find it spreads from the hills in Uttarkhand,Himachal Pradesh,Jammu & Kashmir,the sugarcane fields if junnar in Maharashtra to the dry scrub forests of Andhra Pradesh,and even Mumbai,with a fragmented national park Borivli,etched in its heart.
The leopard is essentially a solitary animal ,a rare sight in the wild.Not a top predator,it lives on the fringes of the forests,preying on small game like barking deer,cheetal,langur and,in times of stress,even frogs and hare.A survivor ,it can eke out a living in toughest conditios.But this very adaptability has proved to be its bane.As its habitat is degraded and prey base depleted,the leopard is forced into human habitation,where it preys on goat,chicken and dogs,and if all else fails,man.In Pauri Garwal,62 people were killed from 1990-2001;a higher number of leopards lost thier lives.When cats maul man,people understandably bay for its blood.They Stone the beast to death.Sometimes in revenge ,at others,for wandering into human habitation.
Permits to hunt 'maneaters'are doled out.Hunters jostle for 'licenses to kill'.To appease the public ,the first animal that crosses thier path is slayed.If it's the wrong one ,another meets its end.Often,bad shot injure the animal,breeding man-eaters.However,there are solutins:a good prey base,like Gir or Bandiput in Karnataka.Here,cases of mortality are nil.
The situation is so precarious,the Ministry of Environment and Forests,otherwise adept at denial,has acknowledged that its virtually out of hand and the WCCB has alerted Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Predesh to be more vigilant.Pity is,there are no champions for the leopard's cause.It's the paupered prince.
Yet,there's none of the outrage the leopard's celebrity cousin ,the Bengal Tiger,inspires.So what if it's endangered,if not more ?The WCCB reckons ,for every tiger skin.20leopard skins are seized.The killing has escalated,boosted by spiralling demand and increasing returns on the leopard derivatives.The bones are used as subtitles in traditional Chinese medicine ,as tigers numbers dwindle.Leopard claws are considered a lucky charm.It's a good market evidently:one seizure in January 2000 yeilded 18,080 claws-over 1,200 dead animals.
As for the skin,blame it (at least partially)on Jacqueline Kennedy who draped a leopard skin across her shoulders,signifying the world that the spotted fur with its 'wonderful fall' was chic.Everyone wanted it.Thousands of leopards were sacrificed in the early 1960's to feed fashion.leopard numbers plummeted.Cosequently ,a ban was imposed on commercial trade in leopard derivatives.
But the black market continues to flourish.And so does the slaughter.
The curse of the leopard goes beyond fur and bones.It is at the centre of severe man-animal conflicts .If you were to map conflict zones in Indian,you'd find it spreads from the hills in Uttarkhand,Himachal Pradesh,Jammu & Kashmir,the sugarcane fields if junnar in Maharashtra to the dry scrub forests of Andhra Pradesh,and even Mumbai,with a fragmented national park Borivli,etched in its heart.
The leopard is essentially a solitary animal ,a rare sight in the wild.Not a top predator,it lives on the fringes of the forests,preying on small game like barking deer,cheetal,langur and,in times of stress,even frogs and hare.A survivor ,it can eke out a living in toughest conditios.But this very adaptability has proved to be its bane.As its habitat is degraded and prey base depleted,the leopard is forced into human habitation,where it preys on goat,chicken and dogs,and if all else fails,man.In Pauri Garwal,62 people were killed from 1990-2001;a higher number of leopards lost thier lives.When cats maul man,people understandably bay for its blood.They Stone the beast to death.Sometimes in revenge ,at others,for wandering into human habitation.
Permits to hunt 'maneaters'are doled out.Hunters jostle for 'licenses to kill'.To appease the public ,the first animal that crosses thier path is slayed.If it's the wrong one ,another meets its end.Often,bad shot injure the animal,breeding man-eaters.However,there are solutins:a good prey base,like Gir or Bandiput in Karnataka.Here,cases of mortality are nil.
The situation is so precarious,the Ministry of Environment and Forests,otherwise adept at denial,has acknowledged that its virtually out of hand and the WCCB has alerted Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Predesh to be more vigilant.Pity is,there are no champions for the leopard's cause.It's the paupered prince.
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