The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Man, leopard in battle of survival
SMA Kazmi
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 17
Man-animal conflict in Uttarakhand comes to the fore in winter months. But this time, the situation has worsened with man-eater leopards devouring young children almost daily.

People in various parts of the state are up in arms against the menace of man-eater leopards. In Chaukhutia tehsil of Almora district, a leopard has killed five young children in the last fortnight.

Virender, the five-year-old son of Amar Singh of Simal Khet village was killed two days ago. Earlier, Guddu (5), Naveen (3), Suman (5) and Manish (6) were taken away by the man-eater from near their homes. As dusk falls, fear stalks the hills of Uttarakhand.

In Chaukhutia, women and children are so scared that attendance in schools has dropped drastically and women are not venturing out due to the fear of leopards. The residents are so agitated that they are planning to start an agitation if the state government and forest officials fail to protect them against wild animals.

In the backdrop of these developments, a leopard was found dead in Gopeshwar area of Chamoli district few days ago caught in a wire trap set up by the villagers. Two leopards cubs were found dead in the forest near Sisuali village in Almora district not far from the area affected by the man-eater leopards. The bodies of the cubs were sent for post-mortem examination in Nainital zoo. It was rumoured that the cubs were poisoned.

Since legendary hunter Jim Corbett gunned down man-eater leopards of Garhwal and Kumaon in the last century, the havoc of the prowling big cats on human beings continues unabated.

While the population of tigers in the wild in the country is fast dwindling, the fate of leopards, their cousins in the cat family is even worse
in Uttarakhand.

The big cats devoid of their natural prey have become the focus of man-animal conflict in the state.

While the leopards are being killed by poachers, these cats are caught in a fix as they are unable to find their natural prey. The frequency of leopard attacks has also 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 in the foothills in search of prey.

Desperate leopards have started attacking children and women during day. More than 175 children and women have fallen prey to leopards and nearly 500 injured in the past eight years as per government records.

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

In desperation to find food, most of these cats have turned on domestic animals and finally end up as man-eaters. Scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) were of the view that the total exhaustion of natural prey in the hills has forced these animals to attack human beings and domestic cattle.

Poaching and hunting has been the main reason for the shortage of natural prey for these animals leading to the worsening of the situation. For instance, Pauri Garhwal district, which has the highest concentration of ex-servicemen with more than 16,000 licenced guns, is the worst-affected area stalked by man-eater leopards.

As many as 19 leopards have been declared man-eaters and seven of them killed by the hunters of the wildlife department in the district.

Forest and wildlife officials believe that the disturbance to the natural habitat of leopards, shortage of small prey and tremendous pressure on the forests due to population explosion has forced the leopards to become man-eaters.

In Uttarakhand, a hill state boasting of having more than 60 per cent of its land mass under forest, having six national parks and six wildlife sanctuaries, having one of the largest population of leopards in the country has become totally unsafe for leopards.

The state saw rapid increase in the number of leopards over the years. As per official animal census, there were only 690 leopards in 1984, which went up to 1961 in 2001, 2,090 in 2003 and 2,100 in 2005.

The old theory that only old and maimed leopards unable to catch their own prey turn man-eaters has become obsolete. Most of the man-eaters killed or caught are young.

The search for food has also forced these animals to even reach towns and cities. More than a dozen incidents were reported in Dehradun alone during the past three years, where leopards or their cubs came within city limits.

Forest officials had also launched a campaign to educate the people about special precautions for houses in isolation, clearing of bushes close to the houses and discouraging people from venturing out to the fields during early morning and late evening hours. But despite these suggestions, the situation seems to be getting grim each passing day.

State government as well as forest and wildlife officials were at a loss to suggest any remedial measures. Political leaders admit that the situation was getting out of control in the hills.

On the other hand, poachers in active collaboration with locals who want to get rid of the big cats are having a field day. Last week, two poachers with three leopard skins were held by the police in Khatima. They confessed that they had taken the leopard skins from Rudraprayag district of Garhwal.

Leopard dies

The body of a seven-year-old male leopard was found at the Badkot range of Dehradun Forest Division on Monday evening. Two leopards cubs had died in Nainital on the same day.

“A piece of wood which had got struck in the animal’s throat led to its death,” BK Gangte, divisional forest officer, said. He ruled out any foul play. The forest authorities buried the wild cat after the post-mortem examination.

Slowdown hits restaurant industry
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 17
The slowdown has taken a toll on the restaurants and many are experiencing a 20 per cent decline in the number of guests here, since the past five months. There are several restaurant owners waiting to down their shutters due to recession. As impact of recession gets deeper, people prefer to eat more at home.

Rocky Kalra of Tirupati, an owner of restaurant catering to South Indian foods on the Rajpur road is feeling the pinch since the past five months. “Our patrons are basically middle class and upper middle class families, who are first to face the pinch and apply cuts on extra spending on food which is still treated as an indulgence,” he added.

The frequency of people visiting the restaurants has also come down. “Families that came once a week now come once in fortnight or even less. In the winters, people love to eat out especially luncheon in our restaurant but this time around few turned up,” informed Rocky.

Others in the restaurant industry point out that the coming up of the new Ring road has also hit it badly. “Tourists coming from Haridwar no longer take the Clock Tower and the Rajpur road route, this has also affected our business,” informed Vijay Arora owner of Black Pepper Restaurant that specialises in Indian, Continental and Mughlai food.

They also said people here still continued to have conservative food habits and were not ready to experiment. “In the past couple of years when the economy was performing well, people had begun to eat out more often but sadly things are back to square one,” said Arora.

However, hotels and fast food restaurants are still managing to take on the pressure and have not been hit by recession. “Our patrons built over the years is helping us tide over the crisis they continue to come but as a measure against meltdown, we have started taking measures against pilferage of food and even worrying about the misuse of electricity inside the restaurant. Though our bar and beverages has registered a 15 per cent decline in customers,” said KP Singh, general manager of President Hotel and Restaurant.

Vans rot outside hospital
Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service

Roorkee, February 17
It seems the health issues come last on the agenda of the state government, as seven medical vans are being parked ‘nonfunctional’ on the Government Civil Hospital premises here for over last two months.

These ‘mobile hospital vans’, having advanced medical paraphernalia, including X-ray machines, surgical equipment and pathological setup with facility of small operation theatre, are just heading towards their early rotting, thanks to the government’s apathy.

After getting a total of 13 vans under the National Rural Health Mission for Uttarakhand, the state authorities sent seven vans to Roorkee and the rest to Haldwani for mere parking.

The cost of each van is over Rs 25 lakh, but it seems that these are decaying in absence of any care.

Being parked in an open area, the vans are facing the weather inclement. Tyres of many vans have become deflated and the signs of corrosion have become visible.

Even a senior doctor admitted that if these vans would not become operational soon, the sensitive medical equipment, inside these, would be rendered useless after a while thus the entire money spent on these would be wasted.

“If they (the government) have no resources, why they spent huge amounts to waste,” said a hospital staff.

“We are completely unaware on the issue. We got directions to park these vans and that is what we have done,” said Dr Ajay Aggarwal, officiating CMS of the civil hospital.

‘Junglee’ calls for saving trees
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 17
Known for mimicking the calls of wild animals, Ram Babu alias ‘Junglee’ is staging a dharna outside the Uttarakhand state assembly these days. Reason: He is perturbed by indiscriminate cutting of trees in the state in recent months.

Ram has launched Parayavaran Bachao Abhiyan and seeking prompt intervention of the Chief Minister for a check on anti-environment activities. He has appealed the CM for his prompt intervention towards directing the District Magistrates for taking environment conservation in top priority.

Being gifted with a unique quality of mimicry, Ram Babu is known for his talent of copying the cries of wild animals. His services are regularly sought in schools to generate interest about wildlife in amongst school children.

Upset by Tehri tree-felling incident followed by destruction of Tehri-Chamba fruit belt, Ram Babu said such incidents have amply exposed the vulnerability of forest cover of our state and seeks a much strong will on part of the state government to deal with such offences.

Taking a dig on other conservationists, he said there is more of lip service towards conservation and concrete efforts are least revealed on ground. “While many talk of environment conservation, there are few who seriously take an initiative towards conservation efforts,” he said disclosing that he himself has planted thousand of trees in Shrinagar-Garhwal in Pauri district. Referring to the adverse effects of depleting tree cover, Junglee said the climate change was direct fallout of such uprooting of forests. “Uttarakhand has been witnessing early flowering which was a direct reflection of climate change at alarming levels in the region.

Junglee is firm about carrying out his protest against every government and institution that he finds insensitive towards conservation issues. “I will continue with my Abhiyan whatever it takes,” he said.