Wildly Outrageous

By what logic does the Wildlife Institute of India punish animals for straying into their campus?

As India’s apex wildlife and ecology foundation, which has trained almost every conservation expert in everything from large carnivores to insect ecology, been heavily funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and our Ministry of Environment, The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is the best endowed and ultimate resource to deal with stray leopards. Abutting the Rajaji National Park, its campus is a refuge for wild beings, especially in the dry summer months when its streams provide water and forest cover. So when pug marks were spotted around the director’s office in December 2008, students and faculty considered it just another resident carnivore. Many leopards have lived on the campus since it was instituted in the 80s, some with cubs. This time too, it was a female seeking sanctuary for herself and her cubs. And it should have been the perfect opportunity to study and observe leopards in situ, right? You couldn’t be wronger.

Her presence, peaceful till then, was interpreted as a potential man-animal conflict. And a man, the WII director, issued orders for expulsion: complete with crackers, beaters and fire-starters to raze forest sections. All this was in total contravention of all the commandments of wildlife conflicts. All this, right outside the classrooms and laboratories where future conservation biologists are taught how to manage such conflicts with tranquilliser guns, radio collars and relocation if the animal is violent. This leopard and her cubs hadn’t even caused any harm. At some point, caught between the beaters, bulldozers and burning trees, the mother got separated from her cubs, before she was driven off the campus.

Sickened by the blatant violation of every rule of community co-existence, the incident has disturbed students and faculty members. A home for wild beings ever since it was instituted in the 80s, you can spot everything from butterflies to cobras at WII. Yet if the director hasn’t learnt anything about managing wildlife or even the fundamental rules, then it’s time to throw all those textbooks at him.

And the villagers? The only reason they’d think the forests were burnt was that there was a man-eater on campus. Who’d just been expelled into their territory. And that’s reason enough for any villager to call for the killing of an innocent mother leopard.

About The Author

Pramila N. Phatarphekar