Outside the protected areas in India, the number of large carnivores(食肉动物) is increasing, due to the stricter protection of wildlife. It is good news indeed, but at the same time it causes serious problems for management. From time to time, the interactions between people and carnivores result in conflicts. And this issue is particularly serious with leopards.
A group of researchers have studied the interactions between people and leopards in Kamataka, a state in India with more than 90 million people. Leopards can be found in nearly half of the state, so there is a good chance that people and leopards run into each other from time to time.
Togaugethe frequency of such interactions, the researchers looked through the media reports from 2013 to 2014 carefully. They found 245 separate incidents in total. Among them, most cases were attacks on livestock or spotting of the leopards by people.
But there are a small number of those incidents that involve injuries or even death of people. According to the researchers, there were 32 attacks on people, causing three deaths. There were also34 leopards died during the study period. Most of their death resulted from hunting and being hit by vehicles. Disappointing it may sound, they found capturing and relocating the animals didn't seem to work out well in reducing their contacts with humans.
So here comes the question: how can the large carnivores and people better coexist?
The researchers believe that it is important to collect more data on where leopards are most likely to be found in populated areas. In this way, people can avoid those big cats effectively. Meanwhile farmers should be paid quickly and fairly for their loss of livestock. People can thus lower the chances of hunting down and killing or moving the offending animal.
