NEWSLINK: Tiger mauls shutterbugs at Ranthambhore

Two people were injured on Thursday when a tiger attacked villagers trying to photograph the big cat at the Ranthambhore national park in Rajasthan, officials said, highlighting the state’s struggle to contain rising incidents of man-animal conflict.

The tiger attack came within a week of another big cat killing a forest guard in the same reserve, prompting the forest department to recommend tagging it as a man-eater, irking wildlife activists.

Experts attribute the intensifying man-animal conflict to a gradual decline in space for wildlife due to relentless human incursion into forest areas and a lack of awareness about animals’ need for privacy.

The incident occurred on Thursday morning when villagers gathered near the park boundary on getting information that a tiger was roaming in the area with a cub, forest officials said.

“Despite warnings by guards, two people went close to a bush in an attempt photograph the tiger,” said YK Sahu, field director at Ranthambhore.

He said the disturbed tiger charged at the villagers, first injuring Satish Meena, 35, and then Kuldeep Swami, 24.

According to officials, a portion of Meena’s scalp peeled off in the attack and he was rushed to SMS Hospital in Jaipur, around 170 km away, where he would undergo skin grafting.

RN Mehrotra, a former head of the state forest department, said tigers are not known to attack humans “unless provoked”.

“Adverse change is taking place in behaviour of tigers because of uncontrolled tourists leading to stress among big cats. There is huge pressure on the peripheral areas of Ranthambhore which needs to be addressed at the earliest,” he said. Every year, more than 2.5 lakh tourists visit Ranthambhore, made a national park in 1980 and located around a fort declared as a Unesco world heritage site.
The Ranthambhore forest – home to exotic and endangered wildlife like sambhar, leopard, boar, wild pig and chital – has 55 tigers by the last count.

Dharmendra Khandal, conservation biologist with the Ranthambhore-based conservation body, Tiger Watch Foundation, also said there is an urgent need to “expand the area of the park so that tigers have more space” and added that people must learn to respect wildlife.

In the past decade, at least nine people have been killed by big cats in the state. In the same period, several tigers including cubs have been killed by people. Several leopards have also fallen prey to human attacks.

In 2004, Rajasthan earned a dubious distinction when it was discovered that all 24 tigers have vanished from Sariska tiger reserve, thought to have been killed by poachers. Since then, the reserve has regained some of its lost glory after relocation of eight tigers from Ranthambhore.

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NEWSLINK: 3 leopards shifted from Kodanad in one month, activists cry foul

Tamil Nadu forest officials have trapped and translocated three leopards from Kodanad area in the Nilgiris district in the last one month, violating guidelines and raising the hackles of wildlife experts. 

According to norms laid down by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), wild animals like tigers and leopards can be shifted to a different location only if they are declared cattle-lifters or man-eaters. But, experts point out, that was not true in the case of leopards of Kodanad, a high security area known to be a retreat of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. 

Forest officials confirmed that three leopards - a female and two males - were trapped and translocated from Kodanad and surrounding areas recently. While a male leopard was trapped in Kodanad in the second week of March and released in Avalanche, about 45km away, a female leopard was translocated to the same area a week later. On April 10, a male leopard was trapped near Curzon Estates in Kilkotagiri, about 15km from Kodanad, and released in Upper Bhavani range.

Expressing shock at the translocation of big cats at the drop of a hat, an MoEF official said there are clear guidelines on translocating animals. He said that as there were no complaints of the animals being cattle-lifters or man-eaters, it was not right to disturb the animals. 

However, state forest officials maintained that they shifted the leopards only after receiving complaints from local people. 

Relocation harmful for leopards, locals 

A senior official, on condition of anonymity, said there was information about the movement of a tiger in Kodanad. 

"Following this the officials were asked to lay traps to catch the animal. But, the tiger proved elusive and leopards got caught in those traps. These leopards were translocated," he said. 

Wildlife filmmaker and conservationist Shekar Dattatri said: "It is shocking that disregarding the findings of years of research and clear guidelines issued by the MoEF, officials appear to be on a reckless leopard translocation spree. It is really important for senior officers to explain the big cat behaviour to their political bosses and persuade the government against this practice, which is harmful to both leopards and local people." 

Wildlife biologist Vidya Athreya who is doing research on leopards said in most cases big cats are translocated due to political pressure, which she said was a common practice across the country. 

"Politicians by pressurizing forest authorities to translocate big cats are helping finding a solution to a problem, but they are creating a new problem," she said. 

She said leopards are territorial animals, and if one animal is removed from its habitat and released in another forest, the vacant space will soon be occupied by another leopard. 

"The leopards normally avoid encountering humans and they go hunting only at night. When an animal is shifted to a new area, it may find it difficult to look for its feed and may not know about the human movements there. So, this may lead to man-animal conflict," she said. 

Experienced veterinarians pointed out that when a leopard is released in another forest, it would lead to fights with the animal already living there. This would affect the population of big cats in the state, they said.

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NEWSLINK: Nepal's tiger population protected by troops and cameras

Nepal's Chitwan National Park has become the first site to be accredited with Conservation Assured Tiger Standards for its success in conserving and protecting its population of big cats. The National Park is home to around 120 Royal Bengal tigers and also has the world's second largest concentration of single-horned rhinos. Poaching has come down dramatically over the years thanks to the efforts by the Nepalese government and the army, with hundreds of soldiers patrolling the park to protect the animals.

Park officials constantly monitor the wildlife by using various methods including camera trapping. The automatic cameras installed in hundreds of places deep inside the jungle take pictures of animals, helping them to estimate population numbers. The BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan joined Chitwan National Park officials to see tiger conservation efforts.

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NEWSLINK: Injured Mountain Lion Shot 16 Times By Police Who Say They Were ‘Ending Its Suffering'

On Wednesday, an injured mountain lion, which laid outside the entrance to a southwest Omaha office building, was shot by three police officers using handguns and shotguns.

The mountain lion was spotted around 5 p.m. outside of Project Harmony located near 120th and Q Streets. The building houses the department’s detectives that work cases that involve physical and sexual assaults of children, reports Omaha.com.

Officers state that after the first shot, the mountain lion rose up, so they opened fire until the big cat “posed no further threat to public safety and to end its suffering,” Officer Kevin Wiese, an Omaha police spokesman, wrote in a statement.

According to officials, the mountain lion was a male that weighed an estimated 120 pounds. The mountain lion had a broken leg and was immobile.

The officers say that the decision to shoot the mountain lion was reached after “deliberation with experts.” Police say that the consulted the Nebraska Humane Society, Nebraska Game and Parks, and the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo.

“It was determined that the appropriate action was to euthanize the animal,” Wiese said.

Officials said that tranquilizing the mountain lion was not an option because it was unclear how the big cat would have reacted. It is the commission’s protocol to euthanize mountain lions that are found in the metropolitan area.

A petition on Care2.com has been started asking for justice for the murdered mountain lion and for state wildlife policies to be updated.

The petition reads as follows.

“Last week, an injured mountain lion hobbled into Omaha, Nebraska, looking for help. He did not expect such a harsh welcome.

Suffering from a broken leg, the big cat curled up under a shelter of a building’s wall. One resident took a photo of the animal while he was asleep.

Officials stepped in. But rather saving the cat, they destroyed it, in accordance with Nebraska’s outdated wildlife policy, which states that all mountain lions that set foot into town must be put down. No questions asked.

Local law enforcement surrounded the big cat and shot it 16 times. The injured animal had no chance to escape. Officers were not even aware the animal was injured – they only discovered this after an inspection of the body was carried out.

A similar situation was encountered in Los Angeles. The outcome was different, however. Police officers got together and spend hours trying to move the big cat to a safe place. Law enforcement officers received a large cheer from the crowd after the operation was successfully completed.

Tim Dunbar, an executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation, was extremely disappointed by the decision taken by local police: ‘The mountain lion posed no threat. We’ve seen the news reports, we’ve read all the stories and all we see are a lot of excuses’.

Please sign the petition and urge the Nebraska authorities to update the state’s wildlife policy. Attempts to rehabilitate the animals that end up in the city and get them to a safe place should be a top priority. Act now and tell authorities that each life is important. These outdates policies need to be scrapped to prevent further loss of lives!”

The petition has gathered 3,812 signatures so far.

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NEWSLINK: Experts to study big cat’s behaviour

Forest dept's 5-member committee will try to explore reasons behind why the animal has been specifically targetting kids, even when cattle were in the open

In order to gauge the reason behind the leopards targeting only children in the Junnar taluka, the state forest department has formed a special committee comprising of five conservation experts to study the behaviour and understand the motive behind the attack.

The decision follows a leopard attack on Sunday night in which a two and- a-half-year-old boy lost his life in Dingore village of Junnar taluka.

The most common aspect of the three attacks in less than a month is that they did not target domestic animals, despite having easy access. Also, no child has been mauled or seriously injured.

Confirming the development, Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Pune division, said, "We have formed a special committee to study the big cat's behaviour. After completing the study, we will submit our report to the department by May 31. Currently, we strongly suspect that the same animal is involved in the attacks. We have placed a trap in four different villages to catch the animal."

According to the Junnar forest officials, the deceased, Sai Santosh Mandlik, was sleeping with his parents in an open space in their home. Around 10.30 pm, the leopard attacked Sai and dragged him into the jungle. The family members and villagers tried to rescue Sai but couldn't. The body was recovered on Monday morning.

"We are going to launch a special awareness drive in some villages and are going to intensify night patrolling," said V A Dhokte, deputy conservator of forest, Junnar.

According to the forest officials, leopards are territorial animals and search for prey in the same territory. Due to rising deforestation, these animals are facing scarcity of food and attacking humans.

"The attacks are abnormal as it does not appear to be for a meal. I suspect some human provocation must have trigged it off, but it is very difficult to gauge the exact reason behind these attacks. The most striking aspect is that the leopard did not target domestic animals," said Vidya Athreya, a wildlife biologist and research associate with the Centre For Wildlife Studies and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Referring to a Russian study, she said, "A few years ago, many leopard attacks were reported in a particular area in Russia. After studies were conducted, it was found that a female leopard was targeting people in the particular area as her cub was hit by a vehicle in the past. We need to consider all these aspects in the study."

According to department records, since 2009, three deaths have been recorded due to leopard attacks. Last year, there were 339 incidents of leopard- domestic animal conflict, while this year, 18 such cases have been reported.

On April 17, five-year-old Pravin Dudhawade was killed in leopard attack in Khamundi village of Junnar taluka, while three-year-old Renuka Waghmare from the same village was injured in the attack.

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NEWSLINK: 2-yr-old Sanjay Gandhi National Park tigress dies

A two-year-old tigress died due to a brief illness at Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivli around 8pm on Saturday. Tigress Beauty is the seventh big cat to have died at the national park since October last. Officials at the national park said that Beauty had been diagnosed of 'cystitis' of the urinary bladder. 

Simply put, it means that the bladder had developed an infection, causing difficulty in passing urine. 

Chief conservator of forests Vikas Gupta, who is also the field director at the national park, said that a team of veterinarians had been attending to the tigress since 10 days as she was unable to pass urine. "Though urine was being removed at regular intervals with the help of catheters but she appeared to be under a lot of stress. She suddenly collapsed last evening [Saturday]," Gupta told TOI. 

The vets treating the tigress said that Beauty had similar issues earlier and had been treated for the same. "The condition recurred," said veterinarian Sanjiv Pinjarkar. "She had trouble passing urine as her bladder had lost elasticity and was holding back urine." 

While the detailed post-mortem report is awaited, the initial finding suggests that the condition was prevalent for a year and a half. 

Beauty had been brought to the city from Nagpur where she had been hit by a train. The bone of a hind limb was fractured in the accident due to which a steel rod had to be inserted for support. Soon after reaching Mumbai, the tigress was initially taken ill due to a change of climate. 

Officials at the national park remember Beauty as a "survivor". Gupta said that after having survived the train accident, she had a similar medical condition earlier. "This time too, death was the last thing on our minds. Beauty's death is extremely sad and shocking," said Gupta. 

The tigress's death has once again raised concern over the well-being of big cats at the national park. Activists claimed that the park authorities are not doing enough. Animal activist Sachin Roy said that many of the recent deaths could be attributed to "negligence of the authorities". 

Roy, who has recently written to the chief minister seeking action against the authorities, said that the big cats are few in number and utmost care must be taken. 

However, officials attributed most of the deaths to old age. "There has been no negligence on our part. Many of the big cats are very old and not in very good health. As for the leopards which are in our care, they were rescued and were never in their pink of health," said Gupta, adding that diagnosing an ailment in a wild animal is not as easy as it is in the case of humans. 

Currently, a 19-year-old white tigress, Rebecca, is undergoing treatment for cancer at the national park.

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Singer Shania Twain becomes a Leopard Ambassador

Shania Twain demonstrates how you
 can look good in leopard without
harming any big cats

Singer Shania Twain has helped wild cat conservation organisation Panthera launch #IFAKEIT – a social media campaign to raise awareness of the need to save one of fashion’s most revered but underrepresented icons – the leopard. 

“I was shocked to learn that these gorgeous animals are being killed for their beautiful skins and other parts for the illegal trade, and yet are so loved by the fashion world," says Shania, who has been given the title of Leopard Ambassador. 

Referred to as the ‘new neutral', the big cat’s spotted print has inspired fashion for centuries, influencing style all over the world.

The purpose of this campaign is to inform the general public that while the spots they are wearing are so widespread, the real leopard is under serious threat. 

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