Dehradun, December 11
At dusk, fear stalks the hill people of Uttarakhand. Particularly during the winters, women and children in the hill villages live in perpetual fear of attacks by man-eating leopards.

On December 10 this year, a leopard killed Shanti, a 12 year-old-girl of Jhajra village in Sahaspur block on the outskirts of Dehradun. On December 1, a leopard in Halwal village of Dhanolti near Mussoorie mauled a nine-year-old girl.

The Mussoorie leopard now has been declared officially a “man-eater” and efforts are on by the forest department to kill the beast.

While the population of tigers in the wild is fast dwindling, the fate of leopards, is worse. The big cats, devoid of their natural prey, have become the focus of man-animal conflict.

While the leopards are being killed by poachers, these cats unable to find their natural prey have started attacking humans. The frequency of these attacks has increased manifold in the recent past. Leopards have been attacking humans and children not only in the periphery of the hill villages but have now come down to bigger cities in the foothills in search of prey.

Desperate leopards have started attacking children and women in broad daylight. More than 175 children and women have fallen prey to leopards and 500 injured in the past eight years reveal government records.

In addition, the big cats have killed more than 4,000 heads of cattle. More than 40 leopards declared man-eaters were killed by hunters requisitioned by the wildlife department in the past eight years.

Desperate to find food, most cats turn to domestic animals and finally end up as man-eaters. Dr.S.P. Goyal of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), who carried out a study on “human-leopard conflict” in Pauri Garhwal, said that "total exhaustion of natural prey in the hills has forced these animals to attack human beings and domestic cattle."

Poaching and hunting is the main reason for the shortage of prey for these animals. For instance, Pauri Garhwal district, which has the highest concentration of ex-servicemen with more than 16,000 licensed guns, is the worst-affected area. Nineteen leopards have so far been declared man-eaters and seven of them killed by hunters of the wildlife department.

Shrikant Chandola, chief wildlife warden, Uttarakhand, said distruction of natural habitat, shortage of small prey and tremendous pressure on forests due to population explosion have turned leopards to become man-eaters. In Uttarakhand, a hill-state that boasts of having more than 60 per cent of land mass under forest cover, six national parks and six wildlife sanctuaries, has become totally unsafe for the leopards.

The state saw a rapid increase in the number of leopards over the years. As per an official census, there were 690 leopards in 1984. The number went up to 1,961 in 2001; 2,090 in 2,003 and 2,100 in 2005.

The old theory that only old and maimed leopards unable to catch prey turn man-eaters has been discarded. Most man-eaters killed or caught are young animals.

The search for food has forced these animals to venture into towns and cities. There have been more than 12 incidents in Dehradun during the past three years when leopards or their cubs have descended on the city from hills and nearby forests.

The WII study has come out with vital suggestions for the people living close to the forests. Special precaution by inmates of houses in isolated areas, clearing of bushes close to houses and discouraging people from venturing out into the fields during early morning and evening hours are some of these.

Dehradun, December 11
As many as 271 persons have lost their lives in attacks by wild animals in the past eight years. As many as 784 persons have been critically injured in such attacks. Wild life department records reveal that most of the dead were attacked by leopards. A staggering 180 persons were mauled by leopards leading to their death while 343 persons were injured by these man-eaters.

Elephants have killed 69 persons since the state’s inception while 60 persons have been injured in attacks by elephants during the same period. Bears too have targeted humans. Eleven persons have been killed by bears and 357 injured by them.

Tigers have killed eight persons and injured 20 since the formation of the state. Tigers, on an average, have killed one person a year from 2001 to 2006, while two each were killed in 2007.

Two persons were killed and five injured by wild boars in 2005. The wild life authorities attribute these incidents to increasing destruction of habitats of wild animals and growing intrusion of man into forests.

The state forest authorities had some time back hiked compensation for the kith of the victims to Rs 1 lakh in case of death of adult and Rs 50,000 in case of a child.

An amount of Rs 5,000 is paid as on-the-spot relief. It has further recommended hike in these amounts.

These leopards on a prowl pick the aged and infants as soft targets.

Dehradun, December 11
Global recession has taken a toll on the tourist inflow in Uttarakhand. According to the recent data tabulated by the state tourism department, this year there has been a dip in the number of tourists as compared to last year.

While in 2008, as many as 2.22 crore tourists visited Uttarakhand, this year till October 31, the figure stood at 1,90,04,874. Sources in the tourism department said by the end of this year, the figure is unlikely to cross last year’s mark.

The state tourism minister Parkash Pant, while admitting that there has been slight decline in the number of tourists, said: “Tourism in our state has been adversely affected by the ongoing global recession but the magnitude is very less. Comparing it at the global level, the recession has only slightly hit Uttarakhand.”

However, recent terror attacks in Mumbai have not had a marked impact on tourist inflow in the state. “Terror incidents have not had any effect on state tourism because Uttarakhand is considered to be the safest destination in the entire country,” he claimed.

Pant also expressed hope that tourism would get a boost during the South Asian Federation (SAF) games to be held in Dehradun and Auli early next year.

The minister said the tourism department is chalking out a comprehensive strategy to increase the tourist inflow into the state by popularising adventure sports, including river rafting, para-gliding, mountaineering etc. “Uttarakhand has several tourist destination, including Ranikhet, Nainital and Mussoorie, all of which were developed by the Britishers. Now, we intend to develop tourist places which are extremely good but have not been explored so far,” said Pant.

Meanwhile, the state has also been awarded the Galileo Express Travel World Award for “Best Domestic Tourism Destination” in the country. The award was received by tourism minister Parkash Pant in New Delhi yesterday.

Dehradun, December 11
So acute is the shortage of doctors at the super specialty department of the Doon Hospital that to tide over the problem, the authorities are increasingly relying on private doctors.

They are offering them less working hours and a hefty salary package, more than that of government doctors.

The hospital has hired the services of Dr Rajeev Tyagi, an endocrinologist, and Dr Anil Rathi, a cardiologist. With these two new appointments, the strength of private doctors has risen to six.

The hospital also has a plastic surgeon, a neuro physician, a nephrologist and a urologist on board.

With too few choices, the authorities had to fall back on the services of Dr Rajiv Tyagi, who had earlier left after working for a short period.

“The services of experts is for a period of three years. The contract for them works out at Rs 50,000 for four hours.

The benefits are twofold. First, as expert services are provided at nominal rates to patients and for below poverty line card -bearers, it comes at no extra cost.

Second, with the hospital attracting patients from western UP towns of Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahr and Meerut besides Uttarakhand, it gains in reputation,” said chief medical superintendent) RK Pant.

However, not everybody is happy with the arrangement. Experts point out that the hospital needs permanent doctors and hiring services of private doctors is but a short-term solution to an endemic problem.

“That the doctors would be working for only four hours can cause a lot of heartburn in full-time government doctors who have to perform regular and emergency duties.

Besides, they will be guided by personal business interests as they continue to work in their private clinics,” said a despondent patient.