Boundary wall at SGNP, rehab of padaas, likely remedy to Mumbai's human-leopard conflict: Wildlife expert

On Wednesday, a 55-year-old woman living in the Aarey dairy colony near Goregaon, Mumbai was attacked by a leopard in the night. The CCTV footage that captured the whole incident showed  Nirmala Rambadan Singh, who stepped out in the verandah in the dark, was attacked by a leopard from behind.

She suffered scratches on her face, chest, and back, yet, put up a brave front as moments later, the leopard could be seen moving away without going for another pounce.

According to Gajanan Hire, who is in charge of the Thane Forest Division, the attack could have been made by a sub-adult leopard. He told the Times of India that camera traps have been installed in the area where leopards have been sighted to ascertain further details on the attacking wild cat and lay a trap accordingly. 

Possible Solution

Kishor Rithe, Wildlife conservationist and member of Maharashtra state Wildlife Board shared with IBTimes, what could be a possible solution to this ongoing human-leopard (HL) conflict. Speaking of the forest encroachment, he said, "Mumbai city has encroached upon the surrounding forest area and hence there has been Human-leopard conflict in the fringe areas."

Kishor Rithe, who started the Satpuda Foundation that works at both the grassroots level and policy level to promote its aim to protect wildlife and forests, further added, "We need to stop further fragmentation of forest by constructing a boundary wall to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (as per the HC order), adding few forest patches like Aarey to SGNP and rehabilitating few padaas (meaning cluster of houses) from the heart of SGNP. These steps collectively will help to curb the HL problem in Mumbai."

As per reports, this isn't the first such attack in recent times. Earlier, the wild cat tried to take away a child from the nearby area. TOI, in its report, called it the fourth such attack in recent times. On September 28, a leopard cub was rescued from the previously designated metro car shed area inside the Aarey forest.

Sohit Mishra, a news correspondent posted the images from ground zero on Twitter appealing to ex-CM Devendra Fadvanis and CM Uddhav Thackeray to rid the forest area of the tin structure.

Responding to his post, Jaya Bhattacharya tweeted, "I hope against hope that Covid has taught us some lessons. One of them being, care for your environment. Aarey is a jungle and should forever remain so. Kindly mark that area never to be touched by humans for their benefit. Start somewhere please."