Leopards in Udaipur: Struggle of a Predator

Udaipur City is the administrative headquarters of Udaipur district, which contains three protected areas: Phulwari Wildlife Sanctuary (511.41 sq km), Jaisamand Wildlife Sanctuary (52.34 sq km), and Sajjangad Wildlife Sanctuary (5.19 sq km). Sajjangad is nearest to the city, just 5 km away.

I’ve lived in Udaipur city for three decades, yet I had never heard of leopard encounters becoming problematic, though leopards have always been here, roaming around the city and the Aravalli mountains. However, this animal has now become notorious as a predator, killing livestock and humans.

The landscape of Udaipur district is unusual. Several villages lie close to the city, which has now expanded into rural spaces like Badi, Bedla, Badgaon, Shikarbadi, Pratapnagar, etc. However, these areas still have forest patches connected to the Aravallis. This allows the leopard easy movement. There have been at least five encounters between humans and leopards in Udaipur City in 2023 in areas like Shikarbadi, Badi, Zinc Colony, Karni Mata Temple and Pratapnagar. No humans were attacked, but street dogs were taken.

As per forest department records, around 80 human-leopard conflict cases were reported in Udaipur district in 2023. This accounts for a fraction of the actual encounters, as only incidents for which compensation was claimed are recorded. There were 78 per cent more cases in villages compared to the protected sanctuary areas. Of these, 63 attacks were reported from villages, 6 near Jaisamand and Phulwari WLS, and 6 incidents were of leopards rescued (from nets, ditches, etc.) from forest patches like Amberi. Around 120 livestock have been killed, and there was one human death — and the atmosphere is tense and retaliatory.

Roop Singh Rajput is a resident of Paldi village in Badgaon tehsil, a 10-minute drive from the city. His 70-year-old father was killed and half-eaten by a leopard in April 2023. He says, “It was not even dark. My father (Fateh Singh Rajput) was working in the field and didn’t return. When we checked after an hour, we found his blood-stained turban on the ground. Before we could do anything, we saw the leopard eating his body just 10 feet from the place of attack. Its eyes glowed in the dark; it growled and ran away when we started shouting.” The following 15 days were very chaotic, and the villagers lived in terror as there were pugmarks of the leopard all over the village as it went about killing livestock. Leopards usually don’t attack or kill humans; wildlife biologists argue that only old and injured individuals do so (Clark 1996). As per Goyal et al. (2007), the behaviour of attacking humans can also be learnt or passed from one parent to cubs, especially the mother.

One thing is certain, the leopards in the Udaipur area have become adapted to easy food and display unusually fierce behaviour. It is said that leopards attack humans in the summer or dry season (Naha et al. 2020) when food and water are in short supply in the forest. This trend also seems to have broken.

In August 2023, another leopard killed two calves in Badi village, 3.6 km from Udaipur city’s famous Fatehsagar Lake. Villagers say attacks have surprisingly increased during the year. Radha Suthar, a Badi resident, says, “My cattle and goats were tied in a cattle shed near my house. Just opposite the shed is another building which opens towards the farm. One night, a leopard came and caught a calf. Then, the leopard climbed the stairs of the building with the calf in its mouth. That was the worst day of our life.” Her brother-in-law was sleeping on the terrace of that building and saw the leopard through a small opening in the wall. The leopard came multiple times after that to look for more prey. Her brother-in-law was traumatised and terrified and became depressed; he later committed suicide.

The forest department captured leopards involved in conflicts and subsequently released them into a nearby wildlife sanctuary (probably Jaisamand). For this relocation process, cages with bait were set up in the area of the attack; this is a common translocation procedure to catch an animal that has come in conflict with humans. This approach has numerous problems. As per Athreya et al. 2011, translocation of individuals can increase conflict, leading to more aggressive behaviour. This increase in aggression can occur due to capture stress, movement in unfamiliar territories after release, and lack of fear developed living near humans during captivity. The translocated individual could be left in the territory of an individual already residing there, and this overlap can cause conflict. Also, the authorities may not identify the conflict animal accurately. Usually, the cage is set up in the area where the leopard has been most active, presuming the individual in conflict will return. Identification based on body marks or missing canines is also used sometimes. However, these methods have the possibility of error, and an innocent leopard could get caught instead of the target individual.

To understand the possible reasons for increased leopard presence in human-habited areas, I talked to some experts and examined the changes in the landscape. RK Jain, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Udaipur, says, “In addition to the forest range areas, the leopard has roamed freely in the hills of the revenue department. Now, with increased urban spaces in Udaipur district, human interventions in the leopard habitat have increased.”

The geographical area of Udaipur district is 12,511 sq km, of which 33 per cent is forest area. According to the forest department’s 2022 census, the forest area has around 82 leopards, though leopards are known to live anywhere from deep forests to isolated green pockets and rural-urban landscapes.

Dr Satish Kumar Sharma, Retired Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) from Udaipur and expert on the region’s ecology says, “Wildlife censuses are always under-documented. There are many more leopards roaming in our mountains. And each leopard needs one prey per week. We obviously do not have enough prey in the forests. In villages, a leopard can get enough and easy food in the form of cattle, dogs, and also dead animals.”

Large forest areas in this landscape have been destroyed to build highways, and factories have emerged in ecologically sensitive areas. There are 17 mining regions in Udaipur district alone, which is one of the reasons for habitat degradation (Sharma and Chishty 2018). There are already six highways in Udaipur district (pib.gov.in), and more are being built. All of these highways have forested hills on both sides. Leopard accidents are common on the NH58 highway (Amberi– Chirwa tunnel route) and NH 27 highway (to Gogunda). The leopard is losing its habitat due to the changing landscape, and as a result, its behaviour is constantly evolving and adapting. Nature has designed this predator to live in larger territories. We are intruding on its natural home.

In this scenario, innovative approaches to conflict resolution are essential. We must develop training and awareness programs for local communities to educate them about leopard behaviour and the necessary precautions to take. Additionally, implementing predator-proof shelters instead of open cattle sheds has shown promising results in some regions.

Dr Sharma recommends that enhancing the prey base can significantly improve the leopard’s habitat. This can be achieved by planting native fruit trees to support the natural prey population. Establishing feeding cafeterias in the forests, where dead animals are disposed in one location, can also provide supplementary food to the predators.

By implementing these strategies, we can create an environment where peaceful coexistence between humans and leopards can become a reality.