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Leopards were introduced in the Car Nicobar islands after the deer population became unmanageable, writes
Lt-Gen Baljit Singh (retd) IT is hard to believe that any Indian can confuse a leopard for a tiger. While the pelt of the leopard has boldly etched black rosettes (spots) over an orange-yellow fur, the tiger has seductive black stripes stroked vertically (in relation to the axis of its body) over its brownish-yellow coat. When these two cats move in their natural habitat, they leave the onlooker mesmerised. And if these carnivores were to freeze in mid-stride, their inbred concealment skills are such that if the onlooker were to shut his eyes for a count of two, his chances of relocating that stationary animate object are probably one in a hundred, only.
Once the tiger and the leopard are reduced to skin for gift and display, only the unfortunate blind can confuse one for the other. This is probably the reason why a civil servant at Port Blair stated a falsehood, to hide an ill-conceived experimentation with the ecology of the Andamans archipaelego, as narrated in Watching an Active Volcano (The Tribune, Oct 8, 2008). Rather than sustainable harvesting of the once abundant floral resources of the Andamans, they were exploited first in excess by the mainland traders and then ecologically invaded by the bureaucracy. For instance, the Car Nicobar island, barely inches above the sealevel, has a concrete road which runs about 100 metres inland from the shoreline all along the island’s oval layout. This was constructed during World War II and there is also a functional airstrip (IAF) of the same vintage. The island was home to a certain coconut palm whose fruit was prized on mainland Madras. The locals had no value for currency. So the Bania traders started bartering one brand new Hero bicycle for 600 coconuts, a transistorised cassette player for 500 coconuts, a wrist watch for 400 coconuts and so on, in the 1960s. The locals had great fun bicycling with their sweethearts to the music from recorders slung on handlebars. In days ahead, they were next hooked to the mainland liquor, lentils and cereals. In about 25 years, they came under heavy debts and mortgaged their land-holdings to their barter-trade partners. And that is when the coconut palms were cleared by the lure of three crops of rice in a year, instead. Where the bureaucracy was concerned, they first gluttoned on the timber wealth. So elephants were introduced on the Andaman islands to hasten the process of carriage of logs. When processed timber became too expansive to market and forests almost vanished, the timber barons released the work elephants to live off-the-land. They became feral and are today an ecology destablising, dreaded factor. Certain varieties of quick growing and high economic value trees and shrubs were also introduced in the cleared spaces. As it happens with most exotics (lantana bush, for instance), they grew alarmingly. That is when the cheetal deer were introduced who are indeed voracious browsers and they did keep the foliage growth in check. But the cheetal are also prolific breeders. And in the absence of natural predators their population soon became unmanageable. The leopard and not the tiger was then introduced. As there is more than adequate prey, and wilderness, they have not yet come in conflict with man. So far no "shikaris" from the mainland have been tasked for culling the leopards on the Andamans. How the two VVIPs, the then Cabinet Secretary and head of the Forest Department were befooled that the skins gifted with "No Objection" tags were of culled tigers from the Andamans is baffling, to say the least.
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