Gujarat Forest Officials Use Themselves as Bait to Capture a Leopard!

A leopard in Gir Forest National Park

In India, the leopard is the most adaptable of the big cats. Its tolerance of change in habitat has made it coexist with people across its home range, but also brought it into conflict with them. Incidences of human-leopard conflicts across the country continue to make headlines with one person being either killed or seriously injured by a leopard. Such incidences have forced numerous measurements to mitigate human-leopard conflicts by capturing the leopard alive and then releasing it far away from human settlements. The most common method used is baiting, in which a live animal is placed in a steel cage with bars inside to keep it safe from the leopard. Generally, a dog or a goat is used as bait to lure the leopard into the trap since both the animals are the big cat's preferred prey in human settlements. But recently, in the state of Gujarat, a new type of bait is being used in a bid to catch a leopard: Humans!

The three men inside a cage where they spent four hours waiting for the leopard to show up.  

The story of Gujarat's latest human-leopard conflict came when a leopard was reported to have killed three people, including two children, and injured five others in Dahod district since mid-November. The victims included Mathuri Ganava, who was killed while venturing into the forest at around 7:00 in the morning on November 28 to collect firewood with three other women. The two children were village girls named Jyotsna Parmar and Ashwinta Pasaya, who were helping their families tend their cattle in the forest. The incidences called for drastic action aimed at capturing the leopard. Forest officials initially used goats to trap the leopard, but their efforts failed. So they changed their tactics by having three of their own colleagues spend a Friday night inside one of nine cages put around the forest where the leopard was roaming. The three men who spent the night in the cage included a veterinarian and a forest guard named Vijay Bamania, a specialist in shooting tranquilizer darts. Mr. Bamania indicated that neither he nor two other men were afraid while spending four hours inside the cage. He further added that all three of them spread dry leaves around their position so they could hear the leopard coming and had a machine to emit goat sounds to entice the animal, as well as a live goat tied in the open nearby. The remaining eight traps contained goats. According to Chief Conservator of Forests S.K Shrivastava, the cage was well-locked and that the three men's job was to alert the others after spotting the leopard.

One of the nine traps used to capture the leopard. 

I find it very interesting that forest officials employed a new technique in which they used themselves as bait to lure a leopard into the trap. It may sound bizarre at first, but I think it goes to show that when a leopard or any powerful big cat kills a human being, it acquires taste of human flesh and there is a possibility that it would reject non-human prey. But there are also various other factors that contribute to a leopard's man-killing behavior, along with that of lions and tigers. One of those factors is old age and it can be identified by signs such as broken teeth and wounds on the animal's body. I certainly hope that as forest officials in Gujarat's Dahod district continue to keep their traps set up in hopes of capturing the leopard, they will make sure that the animal really is a man-eater or not. In fact, I believe that it would help very much to enlist the support of leopard experts who can provide valuable information in distinguishing a man-eating leopard from a normal leopard. I strongly believe that there is a great need to take serious measurements in ensuring the villagers' safety in the area. This includes warning them to never venture out into the forests at dawn or dusk to raise their livestock or collect firewood. In addition, their village perimeter should be surrounded by a strong barricade effective in keeping leopards and other dangerous animals like hyenas and sloth bears from venturing inside.

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