After the completion of an awareness campaign to minimise the man-animal conflict on the border areas of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), it has been observed that the attitude of tribals towards leopards living in the forest was far more tolerant than the local encroachers.
“As part of a long term strategy to reduce the man-animal conflict in SGNP, City Forest Initiative – a part of Forest and Wildlife Conservation Centre, in collaboration with the forest department, conducted leopard awareness campaigns in the human settlements situated on the periphery of the park,” said CFI environmentalist Krishna Tiwari.
A report submitted to the forest department stated that the leopards frequently visit human settlements in search of livestock, dogs, rodents, pigs and chicken. Surprisingly, despite these leopards being spotted several times, there hasn’t been an attack after the July 15 incident in which a six-year-old girl was killed in Mulund.
“The attitude of the tribals was far more tolerant than the local encroachers. They respect the natural environment and were more in sync with nature as compared to locals inhabiting the area,” added the report.
Director of SGNP, Sunil Limaye said, “The drive has been taken positively by locals and in future we plan to conduct more such campaigns to be in constant touch with the population residing in the padas.”
The awareness drive that was kicked off in July earlier this year saw a participation of over 2,500 locals from over 40 padas around the SGNP. The awareness campaign ended on October 14.