Big Cat of the Estate: Leopards in Shared Spaces

Can people and leopards truly coexist? Why do leopards choose to live near humans? And why do humans tolerate the presence of these potentially dangerous animals near them? My mind raced with these questions as my train approached sleepy little New Mal Junction station in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district. It was a rainy morning in 2015, and I was returning to the small town of Malbazar to try and get answers. I was on a mission to find out more about the tea plantation landscapes of West Bengal, where leopards and people share a contentious relationship. My friend Mithu — who had doubled up as my cook, driver, bodyguard, and local guide during an earlier research stint — and I headed to our new field station. Even today, in 2022, the four-room cottage continues to be the epicentre of our research and conservation initiatives, part of the “Coexistence Project”, where we try and enable safer shared spaces between people and wildlife like leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) and elephants (Elephas maximus indicus). However, we continue to receive the most fascinating lessons on coexistence from none other than these elusive cats and the people who share space with them. 

Contrary to popular belief, leopards have always shared spaces with people across various landscapes in India. In the northern districts of West Bengal, when vast stretches of primary forest were cleared to make room for tea plantations during the colonial era, leopards adapted to this novel landscape. The people who currently work in these plantations were brought en masse from the Chotanagpur Plateau region (now Jharkhand) during the British occupation of India. Hence, the leopards and people shared a common thread of being displaced from their homes, only to adapt to living in the tea plantations. However, while living conditions for the workers were extremely difficult, the leopards fared slightly better. People kept livestock to supplement their meagre income, and leopards developed a liking for these animals, which complemented their diet of wild species. Today, approximately 65 per cent of the leopards’ diet in this landscape consists of cattle and goats. This comes at a huge cost to the tea estate workers who keep livestock for a “rainy day” to be sold whenever they need extra money, for example, to pay for their child’s new uniform or school fees. However, things turn ugly when people are injured due to accidental encounters with leopards.

Leopards find ideal hiding places amidst thickset tea bushes and are sometimes involved in unexpected encounters with people. As people move through the dense tea bushes, plucking leaves on the way or spraying insecticides or fertilisers, they may come face to face with a leopard resting in these bushes. While most of these encounters end up with the alarmed person and the scared leopard running in opposite directions, sometimes, leopards charge in self-defence and cause serious injuries to the person. Accidental injuries to people caused by leopards are by far the greatest threat to coexistence between the two in tea plantations. Such incidences create much panic and lead to work stoppages and demands to remove the leopard. However, our interviews with people involved in such encounters reveal remarkable tolerance and resilience. Alpha Minz (name changed) was involved in one such incident in the Nagaisuree Tea Estate. Still in shock and her face wrapped in bandages, she attended a safety awareness session we conducted for workers. In a feeble voice, Alpha narrated the incident where her team was plucking tea from one side, and another team was spraying insecticide on the other side. Alpha surmised that the leopard probably attacked her as it was resting in the tea bushes where they were working and could not find an exit route as it was inadvertently blocked by the two teams. Over 500 interviews like this revealed that these incidents were largely avoidable by giving leopards a warning before starting work, leaving three sides open, and plucking tea from one side only — giving them room to escape if they needed to. Remarkably, these simple practices have reduced such incidents to zero in estates where they are routine.

Leopards usually follow these practices introduced by humans, as displayed by Babulal, a leopard fitted with a tracking collar and followed by our team for almost a year. The full-sized adult male was captured from a tea estate and shifted to a nearby forest after being fitted with a tracking collar. After a couple of months of trying to get back to his “home”, he finally settled in a tea estate close to the release site. He would often spend days sleeping in the tea plantation. When the workers beat drums and made a noise before plucking leaves, the collar signal would indicate he was moving away from them. We rarely observed any movement from him throughout the day. At night, however, the situation changed, and we would find evidence of his shenanigans (a dead goat or a pig) the next day. The only day on which he moved about during the day was Thursdays which was the workers’ day off. Babulal had figured out that when there were no people around (on Thursdays), he could roam freely, even during the day. We also observed this in other plantations through remote cameras — leopards were active earlier in the day during the weekly closure. 

The leopards and people in the tea plantations of West Bengal share a love-hate relationship. Sharing space with animals that cause damage to life and property is not easy. Although leopards are not venerated like elephants in the landscape, people do refer to leopards as “bagan ka bagh” (big cat of the estate). The local communities realise the leopards share their space and an occasional loss of livestock is a price of this sharing. These shared landscapes also play a crucial role in leopard conservation, and our research has shown that leopard densities here are comparable to nearby protected areas. These tea plantations have more leopards than the protected areas since they are spread over larger areas. Our 2020 study showed that the area occupied by leopards in Jalpaiguri district alone is at least 940 sq km out of the 1,200 sq km of non-forested areas, while less than 200 sq km in the same landscape is forested.

  

Coexistence often implies compromise, losses, and vulnerabilities and all of these aspects are highlighted in the coexistence between leopards and people in the tea plantations of West Bengal. The cost of conserving these fascinating big cats often falls disproportionately on the communities sharing space with them. There is an urgent need to reduce these losses through appropriate financial instruments like compensation, livestock insurance schemes, and appropriate preventive measures like predator-proof enclosures. Financial incentives through tourism or other means can provide incentives in these shared spaces to ensure coexistence over the long term amidst changing values and ambitions. Collaboration between government and non-government agencies is vital to achieving this goal to ensure that the costs and benefits of conservation are shared equitably.