Everyone loves leopards. What's not to love? OK, they can eat you. From the Times of India:As the sun sets in Garsahar, a tiny village of Hamirpur district, the villagers lock their gates, close the doors and check all windows before they go to bed. No one dares to venture out in the night and even during the day children are not sent to schools alone and there is always a group of men guarding cows grazing in the open fields.
What the villagers fear and is giving them sleepless nights are the stalking leopards, which have turned man-eaters and find their way to village households in search of prey. Only a month back a villager had escaped from the jaws of a big cat and others don't want to take any risk.
This is a big problem, and I'm not real sure what the solution is. It's easy for me sitting here at my computer in Seattle to say "don't shoot the leopards." But I don't live with the fear of being attacked and eaten. Not that shooting them is the only answer. Maybe they can be caught and transported elsewhere. That of course would take more money. Somehow I doubt Hamirpur district is rolling in cash.
I'm sure some of this can be attributed to loss of habitat. But, this is not like a bunch of yuppies buying 3500 square foot houses in cougar country as happens in the US. These are people that have probably been where they are for a long time.
So how do they solve this problem? Something to think about on your lazy Sunday...
Photo by Omarius 14
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