Safoora Hilal/ Duwa Bisati
On 22 September evening, when the light had faded a bit in the Molinag area of Danisayedain Uri, Ali and his elder brother were tailing their father Abbas Hussain near the house.
Hussain was a few meters away from his sons when he suddenly heard a scream from his elder son, when he reached, the elder brother told his father that Ali was taken by a leopard.
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The news spread across the locality, and people rushed out of their houses to search for Ali. Till then, some policemen alongwith wildlife personnel reached the spot and joined the search. Some hours after, in a nearby forest area, they recovered Ali’s badly eaten dead body.
The wildlife officials say they have already asked the people living in the area to resettle in the lower areas.
In the present year, several such incidents have already taken place. In June, three children were mauled to death. Six days before this incident, A minor girl, Munazah, was also killed by a leopard in the Jabadar village, an area of Uri’s Bijihama.
Syed Rafiq Hussain from Danisayedain village, speaking to The Kashmiriyat said, what was meant to happen happened, now we are appealing the government that such incidents should not take place in the future. The wildlife personnel and police officials cooperated with us, but we were unlucky that we could not save our children.
He added that the leopard is still roaming here and there and every next day leopard is spotted in the area.
“These incidents were not taking place earlier,” he said, adding, an incident took place two years ago when a two-year-old was attacked by a leopard in Chullan village but the victim was fortunate enough that his life was saved.
Ali’s attack was the fifth attack in the past six months. While talking to The Kashmiriyat, the wildlife officials said that this is a forest area and people use the makeshift shelter for living. However, Hussain and his neighbors said that it is their native village and they are the permanent residents of Moli Nag.
The locals of the Danisayedain village said there is a lot of disturbance in the area. They further added their kids are afraid to go out alone and prefer to stay indoors only. “Even the adults are so frightened, they feel that their lives are in danger,” they said.
Human-wildlife conflict in the Kashmir Valley has shown a sharp increase. The major species in conflict with humans include the Black Bear and the Common Leopard.
A large number of sightings of Leopard and Black Bear were listed from different districts including Anantnag, Baramulla, Bandipora, Budgam, Kupwara, Kulgam, Pulwama, and Shopian. The highest number of sightings was reported from the Shopian district (39%), followed by Kupwara (32%) and Anantnag (24%) districts.
Even this year the main city of Srinagar was alerted when a leopard crawled into the housing colonies and even recently a black bear was caught in the Rajbagh area of Srinagar. A man was also seriously injured in a bear attack.
According to a study, almost 90 percent of the attacks occurred in daylight hours, with the majority occurring in agricultural areas (including orchards) and most of the bear attacks occurred during the time concurring with the fruit harvesting season.
Wild animals are usually more aggressive during the morning and evening hours and can even resort to killing humans during these hours.
In 2021-2022, 14 persons died in such incidents. 5 in 2020, 11 in 2019, and eight in 2018. Fifty-seven persons were injured last year, 87 in 2020, 85 in 2019, 83 in 2018, and 120 in 2017.
Since April of last year, there were about 300 instances of wild animals that have gotten into residential areas being caught in cages and nets. The man-animal conflict in Kashmir has resulted in about 200 casualties and more than 2,000 injuries since 2011, according to official statistics.
Environmental experts link the crisis with climate change in the region, calling it an inevitable cause of the decreasing habitat for animals.
“As the climate changes, the floral biodiversity gets disturbed, creating a scarcity of food in the forests which compels the wild animals to take to streets,” Nadeem Qadri, a noted environmental lawyer from Kashmir told Al Jazeera in 2021.
“There is also a misnomer among people that only deforestation leads to the degradation of their habitat. Going for the extraction of a rare medicinal herb, on which some mammalian species are dependent for food, is equally a reason for the conflict,” he said.
“But while animals have been sharing space with humankind since the early times, the present crisis has been triggered by a lot of small green vegetations that have come up very close to the human habitations, offering a conducive environment for the leopards. And that’s how they adapted to this lifestyle and started to throng the urban areas.”
In 2018, research conducted by Dr. Rayees Afzal Mir & Masood Ahmad Dar suggested some measures which can be taken in tackling Human-Wildlife conflicts.
Habitat Restoration practices
Declaration of new protected areas
Organizing awareness programs
Employment to the locals in forest/wildlife department and projects
People must avoid disturbing or irritating wild animals
Compensation schemes by the Government
Advanced Infrastructure and training
Proper Law enforcement
Avoid horticulture plantations near forests and Protected Areas
Precautions must be taken when away from home.