When noted herpetologist Romulus Whitaker moved to the edge of the
Vallam reserve forest some 18 years ago, he asked locals if there were
any leopards around since the nearby village was called Pulikudivanam
(the place where leopards live). The people said there were none.
Whitaker always had a pack of four or more dogs in his farm — a favourite feed of leopards. Seven years ago, while he was on a filming trip to Ethiopia, he got a message from his home that one of his favourite dogs, a big male Alsatian called Karadi, was missing. "Irula trackers helped us find his remains in the nearby forest and we knew we still had leopards around." And Whitaker decided to explore their world.
His journey in various regions across the country brought to light how these big cats have become man-eaters in some parts and in some others they coexist with humans. This is the one line story of the documentary titled 'Leopards 21st Century Cats' shot for BBC Natural World Special. The filming crew roped in leopard researcher Vidya Athreya in Maharashtra and it became a good story to tell about how these big cats still survived far from protected areas, close to human settlements.
The journey begins with a visit to a sanctuary in Rajasthan. Here a village is located close to the leopard's habitat, where people regularly take their cattle for grazing. Neither the villagers nor the big cats in their habitat bother each other, both co-exist peacefully.
The crew then moved to Uttaranchal, a problematic state where the leopard's prey-base is limited and some 70 people die every year due to leopard attacks. The film crew then landed in Akola in Maharastra and finally the curtains come down in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai.
Vidya Athreya, a wildlife biologist, working with Wildlife Conservation Society - India, says that reports of leopards turning into 'man-eaters' is a rare occurrence. In most places, these big cats live with humans without any conflict. In places like Valparai in Tamil Nadu, leopards are known to target garbage dumping points where dogs feed.
"Humans are the main predators of leopards and they are scared of humans. So they stay away during the day when human movement is high," says Vidya. In Maharashtra her team radio-collared a leopard. The animal would stay inside tall sugarcane fields during the day but come out only in the nights in search of prey.
Low prey-base and translocation are the two reasons that turn leopards into man-eaters, says Saravanakumar, the cinematographer of the documentary. In Maharashtra when leopards were trans-located, it intensified the man-animal conflict. "When they are captured from one forest and translocated to another, they get stressed out. They become aggressive and start attacking people.
Take the case of South India, where a large leopard population is found, but there are only rare reports of leopards attacking humans," he adds.
Whitaker always had a pack of four or more dogs in his farm — a favourite feed of leopards. Seven years ago, while he was on a filming trip to Ethiopia, he got a message from his home that one of his favourite dogs, a big male Alsatian called Karadi, was missing. "Irula trackers helped us find his remains in the nearby forest and we knew we still had leopards around." And Whitaker decided to explore their world.
His journey in various regions across the country brought to light how these big cats have become man-eaters in some parts and in some others they coexist with humans. This is the one line story of the documentary titled 'Leopards 21st Century Cats' shot for BBC Natural World Special. The filming crew roped in leopard researcher Vidya Athreya in Maharashtra and it became a good story to tell about how these big cats still survived far from protected areas, close to human settlements.
The journey begins with a visit to a sanctuary in Rajasthan. Here a village is located close to the leopard's habitat, where people regularly take their cattle for grazing. Neither the villagers nor the big cats in their habitat bother each other, both co-exist peacefully.
The crew then moved to Uttaranchal, a problematic state where the leopard's prey-base is limited and some 70 people die every year due to leopard attacks. The film crew then landed in Akola in Maharastra and finally the curtains come down in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai.
Vidya Athreya, a wildlife biologist, working with Wildlife Conservation Society - India, says that reports of leopards turning into 'man-eaters' is a rare occurrence. In most places, these big cats live with humans without any conflict. In places like Valparai in Tamil Nadu, leopards are known to target garbage dumping points where dogs feed.
"Humans are the main predators of leopards and they are scared of humans. So they stay away during the day when human movement is high," says Vidya. In Maharashtra her team radio-collared a leopard. The animal would stay inside tall sugarcane fields during the day but come out only in the nights in search of prey.
Low prey-base and translocation are the two reasons that turn leopards into man-eaters, says Saravanakumar, the cinematographer of the documentary. In Maharashtra when leopards were trans-located, it intensified the man-animal conflict. "When they are captured from one forest and translocated to another, they get stressed out. They become aggressive and start attacking people.
Take the case of South India, where a large leopard population is found, but there are only rare reports of leopards attacking humans," he adds.
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