Human-Wildlife Clashes in a Changing Kashmir Valley

On June 4, 2021, four-year-old Adha was playing outside her home when a leopard picked her up and mauled her to death. Two days later, the body was found at a nursery in Ompora, Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, just a few hundred metres from her home. Adha’s family was completely oblivious to what had occurred. The tragedy shook the Kashmir Wildlife Department. According to Shafeeq Ahmed, the former wildlife warden, the leopard had come to get “pet rabbits” reared by the family but snatched the little girl instead.

Three months later, an eight-year-old child was killed by a leopard in Soibugh, an area in the same district. “People heard cries and followed the blood trail to rescue the boy. They pelted the leopard with stones and sticks until it dropped the kid. The boy was rushed to the hospital, where doctors declared him dead,” Ghani Ahmed, a local, said. 

Kashmir is experiencing a steady rise in human-wildlife clashes. According to official data, between 2006 and 2022, 245 people lost their lives, and 30,000 were injured in animal attacks. In 2019, eleven persons were killed by wild animals, five in 2020, and nine in 2021. A large number are children aged 4-15.

 

Jammu and Kashmir’s forests occupy almost 20 per cent of the state’s total land area. The state’s 15,912-sq-km network of protected areas includes 35 conservation reserves, 14 wildlife sanctuaries, and 5 national parks. In the last few decades, this landscape has been rapidly changing. A rising population has pushed people closer to the forests. Fringe forests, pastures and grasslands that sheltered large carnivores have been turned into fruit orchards.

Attacks were almost immediate in these areas. “Ompura, where leopards have lifted children, were former buffer zones that created a necessary gap between the people and the wild,” says Dr Khursheed Ahmad, Head of Wildlife Sciences at Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST). “Conflict occurs when wildlife’s needs overlap with those of human populations. Both sides face damages.” Dr Ahmad’s research shows that the area under fruit crops in the state has increased from a mere 12,400 hectares in 1953-54 to 3.31 lakh hectares in 2022. 

Leopards, for instance, are among the most adaptable predators. If forests, their natural habitats, are destroyed, they learn to survive on the edges. In Kashmir, they skulk around plantations and orchards in the day and hunt poultry and livestock in the dark. The rising human population has also brought in stray dogs that thrive on poorly managed garbage. Stray dogs, easy prey compared to the fast-paced wild animals, offer a ready buffet for the wild cat. After the attacks, Dr Ahmad and his team set up camera traps in the orchards and plantations of Budgam and recorded three leopards in the area. “The leopards were found breeding in Ompora. They hadn’t strayed into the area from a nearby forest. They had made it their home,” he says.

Khursheed Ahmad argues that leopards do not deliberately attack humans. “They go after livestock and stray dogs. However, accidental encounters with the cat can lead to clashes”, he says. “Children who are similar in size and weight to their prey base, unfortunately, become easy targets.” Meanwhile, the district administration in Budgam declared the leopard a “man-eater” and launched a “catch or kill” operation. Wildlife authorities set traps around Ompora (where Adha was killed) and deployed sharpshooters to catch the leopard. But capturing the leopard proved far more challenging, and the army was called in. The leopard was finally caught after forest officials, and the army put up cages, used drones, and spent nights in camps. It was relocated to a conservation reserve far from the settlement.

Similar stories of clashes are emerging from several regions of Kashmir. On the evening of 31 July, 2022, four-year-old Saqib-Din-Badana was killed by a leopard attack in Langate in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir. The minor boy was playing outside his home when a leopard attacked him and left him critically injured. The boy was declared dead by doctors at a nearby hospital.

Over the last few years, leopards have also been spotted near the Srinagar Airport and the capital’s crowded markets. RTI and environmental activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat says about 15 years ago, the areas of Karewa and Wodder near Srinagar Airport were sparsely vegetated with a few almond trees. In the 1990s, the government carried out extensive plantation activities over grasslands and seemingly barren lands to provide locals with areas where they could collect wood. Several farmers who earlier cultivated paddy fields have turned farms into orchards thanks to the growing demand for fruit. Both plantations and orchards became safe breeding grounds for leopards and brought them closer to human settlements.

Unfortunately, the common leopard is not the only wild animal that is increasingly seen close to human habitation. The Asiatic black bear is often accused of raiding orchards, destroying produce, entering homes, which has led to attacks.

Ghulam Hassan Wani, 54, a resident of Tahab village in south Kashmir, was attacked by a black bear on 24 June 2021, around 4.50 am, while returning from his morning prayers. “It all happened quickly, and I did not have time to call for help. I fell unconscious,” Wani said. Once awake, he dragged himself home and was taken to a neighbourhood hospital. Fortunately, he survived.  

Interestingly, over 80 per cent of black bear clashes have occurred between September and December, which coincides with the post-fruiting season, says Dr Ahmad. Orchards in this season are littered with leftover fruits — apples, walnuts, almonds, plums, and apricots. “Bears wander into the orchards looking for fruit, people chase them and pelt them with stones, and clashes occur,” he says. “Simple measures like proper fruit disposal can make a big difference.”

The wildlife attacks in Kashmir have stoked fear among residents. To deal with them, the wildlife department has established control rooms in several places. “We have issued “do’s and don’ts” to people who live near forests. Our department is on its toes to reduce the number of human casualties,” Shafeeq Ahmed said. 

In August 2022, Rashid Naqash, the regional wildlife warden, issued an advisory asking people not to walk in the forest areas alone. The habitat of wild animals has changed drastically due to the rising urban population. People have constructed houses on what was formerly forested land. This has pushed the animals to the brink,” he said. The advisory reads that children and women are more vulnerable to leopard and bear attacks and suggests that they move in groups and on regular forest paths and avoid shortcuts. It adds that people living in the vicinity of forests should also complete their outside activities, such as social visits, fetching water from streams, grazing cattle etc., during the daytime.

However, advisories are short-term precautions. The solution is far from simple. Or quick. Since 2020, over 900 leopards and 1,800 black bears have been tranquillised, rescued and rehabilitated away from human settlements. Around 40 leopards have died naturally or were killed by the authorities or locals. “The general perception is that the population of leopards and black bears is on the rise, but there is no way to be sure of this without a census. The truth is that land use patterns have changed. The Kashmir Valley has witnessed a rapid rate of conversion of farms into orchards that attract both bears and leopards,” says Dr Ahmad. A long-term solution lies in the enrichment of the habitat through planting wild fruit trees in forest fringe areas to help the creation of plant barriers or buffer zones between forests and habitations. “Some of these measures have been taken in areas of Tral Wildlife Sanctuary and serve as a model to be replicated across the Valley,” he says.

With inputs from Radhika Raj