Leopard Trail by Gargi Mishra
Why a leopard with excess black pigments called Bagheera became a central character in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book? Kipling must have factored a leopard's caring nature. And this character helped me shed my perception of leopard being a dreaded creature.
Recently, I had my first encounter with a leopard in the Sariska Tiger Reserve. I had the opportunity to come out of the fictional perceptions. Watching from a distance of 12-15 feet, the encounter nullified all my unreasonable fears.
Edward James Jim Corbett says " A tiger/leopard sees you hundred times before you can see him." Around 5pm we were searching for Brown Fish Owl near a water body at our right side for 15 minutes completely ignoring our left.
Just then our guide declared "there's a leopard above our head at the stone crop at our left." The adrenaline rush, the fright as well as the happiness to spot the mighty creature were inexplicable. He was so close to us and watching our every move since we entered his periphery. I felt as if we were at his mercy. Being at a vantage point and at a distance which can be covered with a single leap the majestic creature reminded me who's the boss in a jungle! But his calm and composed body language and unperturbed expression gave us little confidence to click him.
Apart from Bengal Tiger, Asiatic Lion, Snow Leopard and Clouded Leopard, INDIAN LEOPARD (Panthera pardus fusca) commonly known as leopard, is one among the Indian big cats. Well known as an excellent climber and a swimmer (comes next to tigers in aptness though). The agility; can run at more than 58 kilometres per hour, leap over 20 feet horizontally and up to 10 feet vertically make him a super cat. Basically, a nocturnal animal like to stay elusive and solitary. Blessed with a huge skull and powerful jaw muscles which allow him to take large preys and to drag his kill up the tree.
Their tree climbing ability fascinates me a lot. As a child I always wondered, why a leopard can climb to a tree top whereas a tiger can’t? Now I know that the body of a leopard has evolved through centuries and adapted to climbing trees to keep themselves and their food away from predators. The powerful fore and hind legs, strong back muscles and protractile (which can be extended at will) claws help them to pull themselves up. The fore-leg bones are not directly attached to their collarbone, rather joined only by ligaments and muscles, which allow free movement. Their flexible backbone allows them to twist and turn up-to 180 degrees and help them balance while climbing along with their long, slender and sturdy tail. Moreover, the low centre of gravity and high power-to-bodyweight ratio make them the most adept climbers in the wild.
Leopards generally avoid humans. They have better tolerance towards humans than tigers and lions. "Then why they trespass frequently into the human settlements?" I often ask myself. I found out that leopards cannot live in an area where tiger population is high. Tigers drive them away towards the edge of the jungle near human settlements. Tiger habitat at one side and human settlements at the other leopards get sandwiched. When we humans encroach their territory by expanding ours, we violate the mutual respect for coexistence and harmony. Furthermore, encroachment leads to the decline in the numbers of wild preys. The hunger entices them to invade into human habitation for easy preys like dogs, pigs, goats and other livestock.
According to Corbett leopard is the most beautiful and the most graceful of all animals in our jungles and who when cornered or wounded are second to none in courage. Scavengers by nature, when driven by hunger can eat any dead thing they find in the jungle. But the man-eating career of a Leopard starts with pure coincidence and the reasons are different from that of a tiger being turned into a man-eater.
In past epidemics played a vital role in turning the Leopard into a man-eater. During the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 that killed one million Indians, many hilly states like present Uttarakhand reported high casualties. Dead bodies were disposed of from hill cliffs. Being a scavenger and due to lack of wild preys a leopard found easy meal and developed a taste for the human flesh. After the pandemic leopards killed humans for food. One of those man-eaters was from Rudraprayag, made popular by Corbett's documentations.
Human-leopard conflicts are increasing. There are reports of its population declining and also trafficking with its body parts. IUCN has tagged them ‘vulnerable’.
Let's protect each and every Bagheera and his habitat the way he protected Mowgli.
(Photo credit : Athiya Mahapatra ; Class X)
